4 ms·

You could have said the same thing about Microsoft's late entry into the touchscreen smartphone market.

adventured 9y ago
You could have said the same thing about X Y Z. Some of those turn out correctly, some of those turn out wrong. It's nearly meaningless as a generalized premise. Nintendo's NES arrived into the global video game console market long after Atari. Sony was very far behind in arriving into the console market with the first PlayStation. Google arrived years after Excite and AltaVista. The portable mp3 player market was years old when the iPod arrived. Microsoft was years behind in most cases in productivity software. It almost always chased from behind, that includes with Windows. In the early years Dell was tiny in terms of volume compared to the computer majors at the time. How could they possibly catch up? AMD was practically bankrupt on multiple occasions. They lost a billion dollars in 2014+2015. What chance did they have in coming back to life and challenging Intel again, having to chase from behind like they have? The tech industry is overflowing with examples throughout its history of companies entering existing markets and taking them, or otherwise recovering from running behind.
- doomlaser 9y ago
  None of those were examples of companies buying their way into markets late with me-too strategies financed by dominant war chests.
  - santoshalper 9y ago
    It just depends on how good the "me too" is. When the competition is a repurposed videogame accelerator, it's not hard to believe a dedicated, built for purpose device could be better.
  - lodi 9y ago
    Okay, how about Microsoft and the original Xbox. They lost $4B+ muscling their way in, and now have the market-leading console. https://www.engadget.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microsoft-4-billion-and-counting/ https://www.engadget.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microso...
cat199 9y ago
You could have said the same thing about linux.
- doomlaser 9y ago
  It was attempting to enter a commercial market with a competing commercial product financed on the back billions of billions in profit and reserves?
  - cat199 9y ago
    yes, msft and commercial unix.

You could have said the same thing about X Y Z. Some of those turn out correctly, some of those turn out wrong. It's nearly meaningless as a generalized premise. Nintendo's NES arrived into the global video game console market long after Atari. Sony was very far behind in arriving into the console market with the first PlayStation. Google arrived years after Excite and AltaVista. The portable mp3 player market was years old when the iPod arrived. Microsoft was years behind in most cases in productivity software. It almost always chased from behind, that includes with Windows. In the early years Dell was tiny in terms of volume compared to the computer majors at the time. How could they possibly catch up? AMD was practically bankrupt on multiple occasions. They lost a billion dollars in 2014+2015. What chance did they have in coming back to life and challenging Intel again, having to chase from behind like they have? The tech industry is overflowing with examples throughout its history of companies entering existing markets and taking them, or otherwise recovering from running behind.

doomlaser 9y ago
None of those were examples of companies buying their way into markets late with me-too strategies financed by dominant war chests.
- santoshalper 9y ago
  It just depends on how good the "me too" is. When the competition is a repurposed videogame accelerator, it's not hard to believe a dedicated, built for purpose device could be better.
- lodi 9y ago
  Okay, how about Microsoft and the original Xbox. They lost $4B+ muscling their way in, and now have the market-leading console. https://www.engadget.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microsoft-4-billion-and-counting/ https://www.engadget.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microso...

cat199 9y ago

You could have said the same thing about linux.

doomlaser 9y ago
It was attempting to enter a commercial market with a competing commercial product financed on the back billions of billions in profit and reserves?
- cat199 9y ago
  yes, msft and commercial unix.