First Mover's Advantage - How Long Does It Last?

Companies that see an un-served needs or wants can create a solution and be first to market. My friend was an engineer in a semiconductor  fab (fancy name for factory), saw that the technicians were holding an apparatus awkwardly, so he made and sold the same apparatus with a different handle. He even received a patent for it! This example is a niche one, but if the solution has a large enough of an addressable market - watch out! Once you spend time and money to validate the market, design, create, promote, and finally activate your channel to sell it, watch out! Money smelling fast followers will ride right behind your hard paved path and slingshot right over you.


ICQ : The first large scale instant messenger application. Users were identified by an long ICQ number, which made adoption slightly difficult because you cannot find a fellow ICQ by name. In some ways, its difficult usage model gave it a "not-just-for-anyone" hipness. Which also made it its weakness. Microsoft, a well known brand because you had to look at it to even work or play games, introduced the MSN Messenger in 1999. I think that this is where marketing and a business model would have helped ICQ.

ICQ status icon was also its brand

Netscape : The first widely adopted internet browser was called Navigator Succumbed to free Microsoft Internet Explorer. 

iomega : This was the a backup solution for home and light business and commercial. It was popular because iomega offered large amounts to be stored outside of the PCs internal hard disk drive. The only way to back up data back then was to use 5 1/4 or 3 1/2  floppy disks, which had very limited storage. With the advent of USB and smaller form factors of hard disk drive (to cater to the laptop market), iomega's unique value proposition was washed away by technology. Probably nothing iomega could have done.


AOL : one of the first large scale internet service provider (ISP), connecting users via a phone line and model. Not going as far back as Compuserve. They transformed to a portable company, with a large following largely because of their initial ISP users. But as fiber optics lowed enabled multiple ISP providers, combined with the onslaught of other portals such as Yahoo, contributed to its downfall.

Kodak : This iconic American company ushered in the camera age. Fuji entered the market and caused pricing pressure on Kodak. Although Kodak was an early "inventor" of digital photography, fear of cannibalization, a half hearted push into the digital age eventually will lead to its demise. Divesting into printing, a field already dominated by strong printer providers is a sign of their desperation.

Atari: This company made video game a common household appliance in the mid 1970's. The model 2600 will eventually sell 30 million units. As Atari transitioned to new generations, Nintendo also introduced the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with better graphics and game. Later Atari releases, including the ill fated Jaguar, were all bombs. Atari died by unguided innovation.