<story><title>Competing with a Mac</title><url>http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/01/competing-with-a-mac/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Kronopath</author><text>Finally, someone else who agrees that the iPhone was a disruptive product. It had all of the hallmarks of a disruptive product &lt;i&gt;except&lt;/i&gt; for the low price. It appealed to a different set of values (i.e. usability and interface), ignored features that were seen as critical in the existing market of smartphone users (No third-party apps at launch? No copy&amp;#x2F;paste? No editing of &lt;i&gt;Word documents&lt;/i&gt;?!), and it blindsided the incumbents (who focused on business users rather than the new market of everyday consumers). Nowadays you&amp;#x27;d have trouble convincing people that existing smartphone users mocked the iPhone when it first came out.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s worth noting that even Christensen didn&amp;#x27;t think the iPhone would be a success.[0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;http://stratechery.com/2013/clayton-christensen-got-wrong/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stratechery.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;clayton-christensen-got-wrong&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Competing with a Mac</title><url>http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/01/competing-with-a-mac/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>blinkingled</author><text>Blackberry&amp;#x27;s was the case of being too much in love with their own beliefs and processes. Also known as inability to adapt to changing circumstances. Microsoft also has those tendencies but they tend to get their act somewhat together even if that&amp;#x27;s too late.&lt;p&gt;Lazaridis saw the iPhone and the Engineer in him went - the battery won&amp;#x27;t last and it will bring down the AT&amp;amp;T network with its full fledged browser. Ballmer saw the iPhone and laughed at the $500 price. Both did not see the potential from a changing market&amp;#x27;s standpoint. Battery tech gets better, hardware, networks and OSes get better every year, and the prices can and do fall.&lt;p&gt;But some of it was inevitable for Blackberry. There really wasn&amp;#x27;t any differentiation potential left behind for them. iPhone got the smooth, attractive, computer replacement part. Android got the customizable, ubiquitous, many options, open and the &amp;quot;not iPhone&amp;quot; part. There just wasn&amp;#x27;t any way for BB to differentiate and win. They could&amp;#x27;ve had a perfectly smooth touch optimized OS with great BB hardware, security suite and BBM etc. and even then their target market would still be limited.&lt;p&gt;The only way they could&amp;#x27;ve saved themselves was if they had innovated ahead of time. After the iPhone and Android it was game over for them.</text></comment>