5 ms·

It's worth pointing out that DOS was never beaten, as Windows is its direct successor. In other cases, the market dominance was quite complete and it took a ma

by scott_w 15y ago

It's worth pointing out that DOS was never beaten, as Windows is its direct successor. In other cases, the market dominance was quite complete and it took a market shift to unseat them (Kodak, Sony). In any case, even if the iPad is bettered, how much of the competition will be around to see it? I think that's more the point of the article than the hyperbolic title.

kenrikm 15y ago
Good point, Sony still has the market for portable cassette players. The problem is that that market is dead and long replaced. I was just discussing this yesterday, the best thing Apple has done is to not let it's prior success prevent it moving forward. The iPod is "dead" for all purposes (I'm talking about the original form) the name lives on in the iPod touch, however the touch itself is really just an iPhone without connectivity. You could be "unbeatable" in Point and Shoot cameras however I would not want to be in that market when almost every phone new has a 8mp camera built in. Markets come and go, staying ahead of the changes is what's important.
- gnaffle 15y ago
  And the interesting thing is that the two longest-lived things on the "unbeatable"-list, the PC and Windows, are actually what the iPad is attacking (the "post PC" era). So far, it seems that Microsoft has decided that the most competitive response is to release an "no compromise" MP3 player which is also great at playing cassettes.
stcredzero 15y ago
In other cases, the market dominance was quite complete and it took a market shift to unseat them (Kodak, Sony). In this, we can see a good model for the eventual decline of Apple. So long as Apple can see technological potentials and the 2nd/3rd order future of market direction (+), they will continue to dominate. Whether or not they can do so for longer than the 3-5 year timeframe all depends on how well they marshall the culture and other soft assets that allowed them to get to their current position. (Word to the wise -- if you have an inside view to how Apple's internal culture changes, you might make some money with short selling.) (+) - It takes an organization like Apple to see the fad for netbooks going on all around and extrapolate to the mobile computing "post PC" model.

by scott_w 15y ago

kenrikm 15y ago

Good point, Sony still has the market for portable cassette players. The problem is that that market is dead and long replaced. I was just discussing this yesterday, the best thing Apple has done is to not let it's prior success prevent it moving forward. The iPod is "dead" for all purposes (I'm talking about the original form) the name lives on in the iPod touch, however the touch itself is really just an iPhone without connectivity. You could be "unbeatable" in Point and Shoot cameras however I would not want to be in that market when almost every phone new has a 8mp camera built in. Markets come and go, staying ahead of the changes is what's important.

gnaffle 15y ago
And the interesting thing is that the two longest-lived things on the "unbeatable"-list, the PC and Windows, are actually what the iPad is attacking (the "post PC" era). So far, it seems that Microsoft has decided that the most competitive response is to release an "no compromise" MP3 player which is also great at playing cassettes.

stcredzero 15y ago

In other cases, the market dominance was quite complete and it took a market shift to unseat them (Kodak, Sony). In this, we can see a good model for the eventual decline of Apple. So long as Apple can see technological potentials and the 2nd/3rd order future of market direction (+), they will continue to dominate. Whether or not they can do so for longer than the 3-5 year timeframe all depends on how well they marshall the culture and other soft assets that allowed them to get to their current position. (Word to the wise -- if you have an inside view to how Apple's internal culture changes, you might make some money with short selling.) (+) - It takes an organization like Apple to see the fad for netbooks going on all around and extrapolate to the mobile computing "post PC" model.