It does work that way sometimes.
So, it’s one thing to be first to market. It’s another thing, though, to make it to market with something that people like, and can use, and that simply works. And, sometimes, it just so happens that the latter displace the former, like the mammals displaced the dinosaurs.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Newton, or Windows Vista, or Facebook Home. Friendster? Google+? How about Macintosh TV? Microsoft Bob? I actually have a whole book of ‘em (Worst Ideas Ever, Klein and Tomaszewski).
So, was all that technology simply ahead of its time? Perhaps. Or might it have been missing a very important part of the puzzle? More likely.
I have a perfect example from my own discipline. Kind of hard to believe, but there was once a time when video of a usability test involved a camcorder and VHS tapes.
One of the first companies to integrate tapes into a software system was called Yoohoo (names changed to protect the guilty). The company I was working for at the time couldn’t wait to write them a check. I had some serious doubts, but there were a fair amount of techy types in the group, and everyone assumed they would figure it all out.
After a year or so of major struggles, though, the software mostly sat there – a good source for viewing the user from back in the observation room, but that’s about it. Turns out you basically had to hire someone from the company full-time if you actually wanted to be able to use this thing.
After a few years, something else came along – we’ll call it Morpheus – that blew Yoohoo out of the water. It pretty much did everything that Yoohoo did, but with the added benefit that everyone on the team could understand and use it. I was as impatient to write a check for Morpheus (it was a lot cheaper too) as everyone else had been to do so for Yoohoo.
Needless to say, that check did not get written right away. There was a little sunk cost, and bruised egos, and stuff like that to get over first. We did, though, eventually make the move. And everyone pretty much lived happily ever after.
Of a dancing dog, Samuel Johnson once wrote that “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” And that’s what you get with some first-to-market technology. Now, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Just make sure you’re not blinded by that dancing dog.
Not that that’s going to happen here, I would imagine:
Sorry about that. BTW, Blake is one of the co-founders of Mozilla.
