Postcards from the cutting edge

Whether it’s the new iPhone, the latest compact camera or this season’s collection, there’s a small but determined group who have to have it before everybody else. Meet the early adopters

IF YOU’RE into technology, you proudly answer to “nerd” and “geek”; at the merest hint of a new app or gadget, you rush to get your hands on it. If fashion’s your thing, people may point and stare – until everyone starts wearing it six months later. If wheels are your passion, you’ll be among the first to drive an electric car, and if you love food, you wept at the news that El Bulli is closing in 2012 but perked up when you learned that Ferran Adria would be posting recipes online.

If any of the above sounds familiar, you’re probably an “early adopter” – a term that originated in technology and web development. “My new Macbook Pro with the new i7 processor is like my child,” says Dave Douglas of ebow, a social media innovation company. Every Christmas, Douglas travels to New York to “consume new media” long before the trends hit Ireland.

“I’m a geek so I buy stuff,” explains Pat Phelan of mobile communications service provider Maxroam. “It’s nice when you meet the other geeks and you have the phone before it’s on the market.” His latest purchase is the Kodak Zi8, “a mini high-definition video recorder that fits in the palm of your hand”.

Phelan believes he was one of the first in Ireland to have an iPhone, an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPad, the new Apple that’s a watch, plus a range of products he can’t mention because they’re still in development. Some items he buys, others are loaned by manufacturers in return for his feedback.

“The appeal of being an early adopter is using a thing first, even if you have to give it the odd kick, but you get a buzz from it and potentially try to make it better,” says Kevin Peyton, a web developer who bought his first computer 27 years ago at the age of 15 and has had four phones in the past three years.

Early adopters are courted by manufacturers because they lend products “the intimate human touch” when – like Pat Phelan on patphelan.net – they share their knowledge online, explains Damien McLoughlin, professor of marketing at UCD.

“Early adopters are seen as a credible trusted source for other consumers because they’ve done their homework,” says Pat Gibbons, professor of strategy at the Smurfit School, UCD.

“What companies are doing is communicating directly to leading-edge nerds,” says McLoughlin. They test the market with early adopters then wait for them to convince the mainstream to buy in their millions when the upgraded, cheaper version appears.

Darragh Doyle, of boards.ie – which created the GAA’s social network site – says: “If it’s new, I’ll get it . . . but I would never buy a first-generation product of anything. I wait and see what’s going to be cheaper and better.” In other words, Doyle listens to early adopters.

The Irish Timesspoke to five early adopters to see what drives them to be the first.

The iPhone freak

ANN CRONIN, a psychology student at the University of Limerick, worked in Dublin’s first internet cafe back in the day “when people would come in and rub the mouse on the screen”. She has kept ahead of trends ever since.

New technologies give this self-confessed geek the same buzz a new pair of shoes might give to other women. This winter, she will be doing without new boots and driving a 13-year-old jalopy so she can buy the new iPhone4.

“I have to have it and so we will do without food and water. . . the house needs to be rewired, but I want my phone and I have to have it now,” she says.

She’s had 15 phones in the past 15 years, which is normal in the household she shares with her partner and teenage son. “It’s a battle of the nerds,” she says. “We’re upgrading everything . . . we had the PS3 – we only played three games on it, but we still had to have the slimline PS3 – which is only slightly slimmer. There’s a battle going on between my partner and my son about who can break their Xbox first so that they can be the first to get a new one.

“The pleasure is in the anticipation, knowing you will enjoy it. I can’t wait to get Apple TV – rolling out now in the US,” she says. “As an early adoptor you love to be ahead and, rather arrogantly, perhaps, it’s nice to know about things before other people do, so you can poo-poo their suggestions of getting a product you don’t think is any good and advise them on what to get instead.”

From a psychology perspective, she thinks early adopters tend to come from families that embraced new things, not just technologies but also experiences, cultures and ideas “in an encouraging and imagination-led way”.

“Learning a new skill is utterly rewarding but invariably I’m off seeking the next one as soon as I have one technique down.

“Wanting something is proportional to how happy you think you are going to be once you have it. With that in mind, I try to make sure I get use out of stuff, and that it doesn’t end up in one of the many wire-filled drawers of shame,” she adds.

The ready, steady cook

BEING AHEAD of the wave with new ingredients and equipment has helped Ross Lewis’s restaurant, Chapter One in Dublin, gain its Michelin star.

Lewis’s latest adoption: the use of exotic spices such as black cumin and mace as condiments to enhance the flavour of everything from pumpkin soup to pheasant to ice cream, a trend he’s adopted from three-Michelin-star French chef Olivier Roellinger.

As for gadgets, Lewis has the type of siphon used by El Bulli’s Ferran Adria to aerate food to foamy lightness; a time-saving filter that clarifies consomme in one step; a thermomixer (a blender with a heat source that makes sauces without the need to stand over a hot pan with a spoon); and waterbaths used in the “sous vide” method of cooking, involving vacuum-packing food with herbs and aromatics in a bag, then cooking very slowly in a waterbath at low temperature.

Sous vide is being developed for home chefs, while thermomixers are already on the market.

“There’s no doubt that the trend is to take as much labour out of cooking as you can, while improving the flavour of fresh ingredients.”

Ken Thompson

KEN THOMPSON, from Belfast, has about a dozen phones and uses three. “My wife says I’m a gadget freak.”

He started blogging in 2004, Twittering in 2006, and is such a prolific blogger on technology, that he ranks fifth on Google.

Thompson says he’s a “one-click addict . . . a middle-aged man who gets withdrawal symptoms if he doesn’t click and purchase on Amazon at least twice a week”.

He buys a new gadget once a month but also buys a book a week and still uses pen and paper. “I would never read an e-book and I’m in love with my desk diary. Early adopters aren’t early adopters for everything.”

Driven to be first

SHANE TESKEY ordered a €31,000 Nissan Leaf electric car (pictured) “on the spur of the moment” even though it could be outmoded and devalued in a year or two as technology improves. “I was willing to take the risk. The Leaf is the perfect toy – a cross between a car, a mechanical object, a new gizmo and you can use it practically.”

When he and his wife were expecting their first child, Teskey had to have the Harley of his dreams before he was stuck with a sensible car. He bought his Harley on eBay, flew to New York, got on a bus to Pennsylvania and collected the bike . He spent €14,000 plus €7,000 to ship it home.

When baby Emma was born, he “had to buy” the latest Canon Eos 450 to take the best possible pictures of his darling. He’s anxious to get his hands on an iPhone 4, although his current iPhone is fine (“I’ll probably give it to Emma to watch cartoons on”).

He thinks being “slightly” obsessive-compulsive is part of the early adopter personality. “If it’s marketed as the perfect item, or the perfect solution for the perfect problem, I will pursue it perfectly.”

Fast-forward in fashion

DESPITE SOME odd looks and the occasional giggle, Rebecca Comer, fashion PR for Brown Thomas with Kennedy PR, was wearing harem trousers two years ago – now they’re “well in”. She was wearing leggings and “jeggings” she got in Spain, when Dubliners still thought they were 1980s naff, and – hey presto! – they’re all the rage. She researches constantly so that she’s at least six months ahead and when she wants something, she makes sure she gets it.

This winter, she will be wearing a highly-structured black Balenciaga military coat – one that was so ahead of its time when she “stalked” in last winter’s sales – that she got it for a song, and this winter, it’s the height of fashion.

“My friends are always commenting on my clothes. I’ve always been fashion-forward,” she says. She mixes new buys with vintage from Top Shop in London and classic pieces from her mother’s closet. “In London there’s more creativity and personal style on the street. It’s more acceptable to be ‘out there’,” she says.