Rating: 
Summary: Thesis is right on, but you don't need the whole book.
Review: The 'Disruptive Technology' thesis is right on. The introduction tells you the whole story. The first 3 chapters help provide examples to support the thesis. After that the remaining chapters continue with academic minutia.
Rating: 
Summary: A must-read
Review: Great book! If the beginning is a bit slow, after you've read this book, you will see the evolution of businesses with different eyes. I've found that Christensen's theory can be applied to virtually any economic sector.
Rating: 
Summary: Snore! Interesting premise, but Christensen falls short
Review: I didn't much care for this book. Frankly, it was painful to read. Even finishing the first few chapters became a bit of an endurance test. However, with so many positive reviews, I pushed onward to the bitter end, hoping for a redeeming pearl of wisdom or some keen insight. I finished the book disappointed. Don't get me wrong; I am very intrigued by the premise. Why do great companies fail? How do disruptive technologies redefine the competitive landscape? How can established players compete against new entrants? All these questions are timely. Here's the skinny: 1. The book reads like a Ph.D. thesis written by a lobotomized 3rd grader. Prepare yourself for long tirades full of grammatically ridiculous prose. The numerous charts and tables are a holy terror! 2. Christensen repeats himself on many occasions. Rather than being clear once, he attempts to make his point by being unclear many times. 3. Christensen may be a business school professor and a former consultant, but that does not make him a business strategist. It certainly doesn't make him a writer. All told, buy the Cliff notes or the executive review.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive in scope but poorly written (re: clarity, etc)
Review: 1. I enjoyed the book and its premise. The book's major premise was shocking in its implications (ie. that it is the companies that are doing everything "right" and "by the book" that are the companies most susceptible to destruction from emerging disruptive technologies). However,I never did understand Christensen's "leap" in Chapter 8 when he asserted that "Historically, when this performance oversupply occurs, it creates an opportunity for a disruptive technology to emerge and subsequently to invade established markets from below". Try as I might, I was unable to find any documentation or rational explanation for this blanket assertion of his. Up to that point in the book, I was hanging on by my fingernails, but this hypothesis left me questioning its underlying basis. I'm certain that I just missed the rationale for this assertion. However, this brings me to my second point: 2. Why is it that professors have to write in rambling compound sentences. Many was the time that I had to repeatedly re-read approximately 80% of his book as I struggled with context, syntax and just plainly poor grammar. What ever happened to simple sentences? The above-quoted sentence (of Christensen)was one of the shortest and clearest sentences in the book!! The subject matter in the book was striking in its implications; it deserved to be more clearly and simply described. 3. If truth be told, I felt that the 211 page book, as a conveyer of information, could have been about 150 pages shorter. As a scholarly work and a doctoral dissertaion, I can understand the formality involved in the writing. However, such writing did not make the book any easier to read and understand. It was shear torture....and the charts and graphs--ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
Rating:
Summary: Principles & Strategies of Technology Innovation
Review: It provides eye-opening, research-based insights to the problems of managing innovation. Many are insights that although are counter-intuitive (e.g., good management and listening too closely to customers are a root cause of many problems in innovation), nevertheless are compelling when we carefully examine the histories of firms like IBM. Professor Christensen drives to understand root causes and extract fundamental principles based on thorough examination of the failures of many large, established companies to take new technologies from the lab to market. A must read for anyone within large or small firms involved in bringing innovative technologies to market. One of my favorite courses and professors in grad school.
Rating:
Summary: Seminal
Review: This book takes the radical position that great companies can fail precisely because they do everything right. It demonstrates why outstanding companies lose their market leadership when confronted with disruptive technology-and it explains how to avoid a similar fate. Drawing on insights from a number of industries-such as the computer and disk drive industries, discount retailing, minimills, pharmaceuticals, and the automobile industry-Christensen shows why good management often turns out to be all wrong-and what to do about it.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening & thought provoking
Review: This was an excellent book and I agree with others that you pick up more on the second read. I learned a lot about disruptive technologies, processes and ideas. This had great relevance to current and future business strategies and "world view", as well as placing many past experiences in a clearer context. The text is not great prose, and many of the examples get a bit too detailed and didactic, but with every one you see parallels to other industries and your own visions and experiences. This is excellent not only for those trying not to be overtaken by disruptive technologies but also for those of us looking for disruptive opportunities.
Rating:
Summary: Even better read the second time around
Review: Professor Christensen's book details how good management can still fail to recognize an innovative opportunity. Because large companies have large market growth requirements and listen to established customers, they almost always miss a new dynamic and exploding emerging market. To overcome this, the professor suggests creating a seperate skunkwork where small market battles can be fought (more elan, allowed to fail and reassault, and less inertia). This is one of the most powerfully argued business books of recent past and each point makes absolute sense to any business facing the horns of the dilemma.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This is possibly the best book on the impact of technology in business that I have read. The fact that this book has been extremely well researched makes it extremely credible. Couple that with an extremely comfortable writing style and persuasive arguement and you have a book that will not let you sleep until you are finished. Most books on the subject are based on anecdotal evidence. This work is based on substantive research. This work provides a very persuasive reasoning as to why businesses struggle with certain technological changes. I definitely recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: This book was as compelling to read as a college quantitative analysis text. If you are interested in a narrative account of the evolution of the information system industry this is probably not the book for you. But if you yearn for those undergrad and post graduate days and nights spent plowing through business case studies, complete with mind bending graphs and mystifying charts, by all means bring this book with you on your summer vacation.
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