I have a pet peeve with this common piece of wisdom. You can always find a "predecessor" for about anything. The corollary being that there is never a "first".

I have a pet peeve with this common piece of wisdom. You can always find a "predecessor" for about anything. The corollary being that there is never a "first". And therefore, stating that "none of the big companies were the first in their categories" is just stating a tautology.