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From #1: "you can never lead your market by following the pack." You don't have to "lead your market" to be profitable.

• SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  But you will eventually become irrelevant, which makes new customer acquisition extremely difficult. Most companies that profitably lead by following the pack do so by leveraging other products they produce as their way to the customer. If you have a handful of "leading" products and a handful of "following" products, this can be a very good strategy as it allows you to produce "solutions" that leverage the sales of the leaders. On the other hand, it rarely works for a single product and doesn't work for long when all your products follow. In general, following is usually a result of poor product management (doesn't understand the customer) or poor executive management (doesn't invest in product development). Rarely is it part of a well-considered strategy.