Crossing the Chasm

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**Title** **Crossing the Chasm**
Book Cover
Author	Geoffrey A. Moore
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Marketing high-tech products
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	unknown
Released	1991
Released in English	1991
Media type	Book
Pages	unknown
ISBN	0-06-051712-3

Crossing the Chasm is a marketing book by Geoffrey A. Moore that focuses on the specifics of marketing high tech products. It was first published in 1991.

In Crossing the Chasm, Moore begins with the diffusion of innovations theory from Everett Rogers, and argues there is a chasm between the early adopters of the product (the technology enthusiasts and visionaries) and the early majority (the pragmatists). Moore believes visionaries and pragmatists have very different expectations. And he attempts to explore those differences and suggest techniques to successfully cross the "chasm," including choosing a target market, understanding the whole product concept, positioning the product, building a marketing strategy, choosing the most appropriate distribution channel and pricing.

Moore's approach has been criticized from a strategic perspective because it deals with adoption and not profit. It is possible that in many cases "crossing the chasm" may not lead to profitability. Similarly, Moore places a large emphasis on being the first to cross the chasm, but there is substantial evidence that being a later mover in a given technology market may also be advantageous.^{[citation needed]}

Crossing the Chasm is closely related to the Technology Adoption Lifecycle where five main segments are recognized; innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. However, Moore's theories are only applicable for disruptive or discontinuous innovations. Adoption of continuous innovations (that do not force a significant change of behavior by the customer) are still best described by the original Technology Adoption Lifecycle. Confusion between continuous and discontinuous innovation is a leading cause of failure for high tech products.^[1]

Finally, the theories behind Crossing the Chasm do not address the question of resource allocation within the high-tech enterprise. An executive cannot use Chasm principles to determine how much resource should be applied to serving the early market, and how much should be applied to serving future mainstream markets.

By 2002, 10 years after the first publication, more than 300,000 copies had been sold. Crossing the Chasm is available in several prints, one is ISBN 0-06-051712-3.