How meaningful is the term "minimal viable product" in this context (or any)? Dropbox was designated from the beginning as an online storage tool. If they had

How meaningful is the term "minimal viable product" in this context (or any)? Dropbox was designated from the beginning as an online storage tool. If they had not provided online storage when they started, no one would have used them. In that sense any advanced features were icing on the cake. But I don't see this as being a critical part of Dropbox's success. They probably could have launched six months later with a more full featured product and still done well in the online storage market - simply by virtue of the strength of their product, team and strategy. I'm a little tired of Eric Ries' simplistic axioms and consequent tendency to try to squeeze every use case into the mold of a supporting example. To the extent that the term can be applied to any successful startup, how meaningful is it?