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When good tech ideas go bad

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zridling:

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/when-the-herd-goes-the-wrong-way-or-good-tech-ideas-gone-bad/

Katie Fehrenbacher has an excellent article on GigaOM today, When good tech ideas go bad:

Sometimes tech trends end up disrupting huge industries, like when the idea of Skype and free web calls, collided with the phone companies. However, sometimes tech ideas have all the makings of these kind of disruptions — complete with collective billions of dollars of venture capital funding, dozens of startup competitors, and enthusiastic analyst predictions — but ultimately end up flaming out because of things like timing, macroeconomic conditions, or fatal business model flaws.

40hz:
Thanks Z! Good article. More please?

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Read the business history of Commodore Computer for one textbook example after another of shooting yourself in the foot.

This is a company that "had it all" in their hands at least three separate times. And each time rampant egos and corporate hubris, combined with garden variety stupidity (and market change) sank them.

If Commodore played it's cards right, Apple would have been just another footnote in the history of personal computing. And an emaciated and crazed-looking Steve Jobs (affectionately known as The Madman of Cupertino) would likely still be seen wandering the streets of Silicon Valley looking for somebody else's "genius invention" to hitch a ride on and promulgate as his own...

So RIP Commodore. Vaya con Dios...

On second thought, considering how badly they handled nearly everything, it probably served 'em right. :-\

zridling:
The YouTube videos of Amiga were my introduction to Commodore a few years ago. Had a couple of buddies who were still using and programming their Amiga systems through 1995!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUKKLzD4Pto&feature=related

app103:
If you really want a treat, archive.org has an old episode of Computer Chronicles, showcasing the Amiga 500 & 2000.

http://www.archive.org/details/amiga_2

While watching this, consider the capabilities and cost of what else was available at the time...a PC with MS-DOS 4 or Windows 386/2.1 ($5,000) or a Mac with OS2 ($4,869). The Amiga was under $1000. It was so much more affordable than just about anything else in current use, that the entertainment industry embraced it and used it for things like the early episodes of Babylon 5. The entire first season's special effects (and about half of the 2nd) were done exclusively on a network of Amigas.

40hz:
Truly great landmarks in personal desktop computing:


* 1983 - IBM PC + Lotus 1-2-3
* 1986 - Apple Macintosh & LaserWriter + Aldus Pagemaker
* 1990 - Commodore Amiga + Video Toaster/Lightwave 3D                          Atari ST + Cubase 2.0  (1990 was a very good year!)


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