techdigest

PC World magazine has ranked the major technological inventions of the past few decades that have changed the way we live and work. Which is your favorite?

1. Netscape Navigator (1994)
2. Apple II (1977)
3. TiVo HDR110 (1999)
4. Napster (1999)
5. Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS (1983)
6. Apple iPod (2001)
7. Hayes Smartmodem (1981)
8. Motorola StarTAC (1996)
9. WordPerfect 5.1 (1989)
10. Tetris (1985)

Half of the list consists of products that have virtually died: Netscape, Napster, Lotus, WordPerfect, Motorola StarTAC. Microsoft killed Lotus, Netscape and WordPerfect. I do not feel sorry for them however. It is creative destruction. What it probably conveys is that that just the innovation is not enough. It needs to be constantly improved or it will make way for better products to take over. Hotmail, Motorola StarTAC, Friendster are all examples where they introduced a game changing product but eventually died because of lack of innovation or constant drive for improvement. There is no such thing as “first mover advantage” in technology unless you are constantly innovating and exceeding customer and market expectations!

This entry was posted Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Technology. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.