Many, especially in business, would argue the opposite; the first mover advantage is huge. Case in point, the business strategy of Sony. The philosophy of "lifers"--build a widget, establish a broad base of loyal, satisfied customers, grow the organization organically is about as obsolete as "Live long and prosper." Ask any small business owner in a location adjacent to Wal-Mart about customer loyalty and branding. Or ask anyone who worked in the Oldsmobile division of GM. > Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:30:49 -0700> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL > PROTECTED]; [email protected]> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: > First on market (was RE: radical revamping of techpubs)> > Despite the > incredible pressure that people feel to be the first on > the market with the > latest release, I think history shows that it is > almost NEVER the first > product to market that has long-term success, > at least in high-tech. The > IBM PC was not the first to market by a > number of years. Microsoft hasn't > ever gotten there first with > anything that comes to mind. VisiCalc. > WordStar. Doc-to-Help was, > I think, on the market before Robohelp, yet they > got outmarketed > ultimately. VHS vs. Beta: Beta was, and is, a better > overall format > but VHS outmarketed Beta and >poof< no more Beta. And so on. > It > could be argued that what tends to work is the products that watched > > what the first product did and then didn't make the same mistakes or > at > least capitalized on marketing. There are exceptions to > this--Visio comes > to mind--where something is so truly innovative as > to be unique, but these > are rare and stellar examples. For the most > part, the first product to > cross the finish line is guaranteed to > ~not~ survive the test of time.> > > Even on a short-term basis, pushing a product out the door to meet an > > arbitrary schedule gets you what you deserve. Who here is fool > enough to > install the .0 version of anything from, say, Microsoft or > Adobe? And who, > having done that, got away with it with their > computing skin intact? Robert > Cringely was nice enough to quote me > in his column a couple months ago: "At > Microsoft, quality is job > SP1," but this is an aphorism you could apply to > a lot of companies, > not just the folks in Redmond. They all feel the same > pressures and > make the same mistakes.> > If I knew that a company was > actively taking a few extra months to > plan things and deliver me a bug-free > product, I'd be very impressed > and would consider that heavily when > shopping for something.> > > Yours truly,> > John Hedtke> > Author/Consultant/Contract Writer> www.hedtke.com <-- website> 541-685-5000 > (office landline)> 541-554-2189 (cell)> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (primary email)> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (secondary email) > _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last. Get it now. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102225181033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
