If there's a lesson, and there may not be, I think that it's that a company shouldn't get 100% into either mode of operation. A company that's totally focused

If there's a lesson, and there may not be, I think that it's that a company shouldn't get 100% into either mode of operation. A company that's totally focused on breaking into (or creating) new markets can get so wrapped up in chasing the next big thing that they neglect their existing customers, or they don't know what to do when a couple of years go by without some big huge new innovation. On the other hand, a company that's totally focused on maximizing profits from its existing products can eventually become a dead end too. It becomes very risk averse, and unwilling to cannibalize any of its existing products with newer, more innovative products. It becomes obsessed with the idea of using every product to sell every other product, such as the ubiquitous Windows branding that has pretty much killed every Microsoft product that wasn't Windows. Maybe there's a middle ground, but I fear there isn't. I think there's just a natural boom and bust cycle for tech companies, and the best they can hope for is to survive the next bust and get to the next boom. At the heart of a lot of this is are the forces that drive the stock market- in the tech industry at least, you can't just carve out a niche for yourself and constantly improve in that one area. You may make a ton of money, but tech investors only care about growth. It's like publicly owned companies have forces acting on them that make them grow and grow and grow until it kills them. It's not sustainable and it kind of sucks that it has to be that way.