> When there's no product differentiation, distribution wins. In the telco case, products build on top of broadband were 10x improvements over products built in

> When there's no product differentiation, distribution wins. In the telco case, products build on top of broadband were 10x improvements over products built into broadband. YouTube, Netflix and other internet content providers could do things that cable and telephone simply couldn't. Now, competitors must differentiate on expertise, community, and developer experience. I don’t disagree, but I think the important thing to understand is the flip side of this argument: products built on top of broadband were 10X better… and that created demand for the dumb pipe. If you wanted these new products, you had to order broadband. And then cable and telcos had local monopolies/oligopolies, so there was no need to differentiate themselves. Others created the demand and they locked customers into renewing contracts. Why be anything other than a dumb pipe in such a scenario?