Penelope Jenkins at the University of Warwick Knowledge Center, and based on Gerd Leonhard’s talk at TEDxWarwick, March 2011: “The internet is heralded as a quick way to buy products and services, but in reality how easy is it to source and use a product? Gerd Leonhard, media specialist and speaker at TEDxWarwick 2011, suggests that companies who make it hard for consumers to access their products may fall by the wayside in the current competitive market. Citing the record industry as an example, Gerd explains his ‘Friction is Fiction’ theory.


When it comes to buying products or content on the internet, how easy do you find it to locate and purchase what you want? Have you ever downloaded a movie, only to find you have just 24 hours to watch it before it expires? Or wanted to share with a friend a great ebook you’ve bought, just as you would pass on a paperback, but copy protection prevents you from doing so?

Gerd Leonhard, futurist and media specialist, calls these hindrances ‘friction’ – and thinks that for companies who want to thrive in the digital age, ‘friction is fiction’. Consumers don’t want hurdles in place to prevent them from accessing the… read on.”

Based on Gerd Leonhard’s talk at TEDxWarwick 2011, Penelope Jenkins wrote on the University of Warwick’s online Knowledge Center: “The internet is heralded as a quick way to buy products and services, but in reality how easy is it to source and use a product? Gerd Leonhard, media specialist and speaker at TEDxWarwick 2011, suggests that companies who make it hard for consumers to access their products may fall by the wayside in the current competitive market. Citing the record industry as an example, Gerd explains his ‘Friction is Fiction’ theory.

When it comes to buying products or content on the internet, how easy do you find it to locate and purchase what you want? Have you ever downloaded a movie, only to find you have just 24 hours to watch it before it expires? Or wanted to share with a friend a great ebook you’ve bought, just as you would pass on a paperback, but copy protection prevents you from doing so?

Gerd Leonhard, futurist and media specialist, calls these hindrances ‘friction’ – and thinks that for companies who want to thrive in the digital age, ‘friction is fiction’. Consumers don’t want hurdles in place to prevent them from accessing the content or products they want. With 2.2 billion people worldwide on the internet, and 4.6 billion users of mobile phones, companies that make it harder for us to access the digital commodities we are looking for will … read on.”