twentieth century. In the 1960s the airplane eliminated the
ocean liner as a means of long-distance travel (but not for
holiday cruises). For passenger travel on land, the train
eliminated the stagecoach, while the bus competed with the
train without eliminating it. The airplane is now the dominant
form of travel for long distances, leaving trains and buses to be
used mainly for short distances.
These examples all involve the elimination of a product by the
development of a new, preferred product. But creative
destruction also occurs with the development of better
processes. The laborious hand-setting of metal type for printing
was replaced by linotype that allowed the type to be set by a
keyboard operator. The linotype was swept away by computer
typesetting, and much of the established printing shop
operations have now been replaced by low-cost laser printing.
A century ago, automobiles were produced with skilled
craftsmen operating relatively unsophisticated equipment.
When Henry Ford perfected the techniques of mass production
in the early 1920s, masses of less-skilled workers operated
specialized and inflexible equipment. Today, relatively few
highly skilled workers operate very sophisticated robotics
equipment to produce vehicles.
Very recently, the Internet has permitted some services to be
delivered to customers in ways that seriously challenge the
market power of incumbent firms. Online apps that match