[NalNezumi]

I assumed it's also an easy trap to fall in to if you start to write down pros/cons in a list when you discuss / strategize where to invest your next effort to increase profit. Effort to optimize current thing, have a lot of pros and few cons, so very low risk. Something that could cannibalise current profit might have few bullet points at the pros list vs the cons, even if that one bullet point might be substantially bigger in the effect.

Sony had the technology(mp3 players, phone, etc) and competence to be the first one to invent the smartphone. But I can't imagine in a risk averse culture, that a boardroom would listen to someone that would come in a suggest something that cannibalise multiple divisions in the company, in the promise that it would generate more profit, vs each divisions proposal of how to optimize their already existing profits.

[dpc050505]

Palm and blackberry got crushed by apple, who weren't the inventors of the smartphone but rather the ones who came out with a product that could be successfully marketed for over a decade. The smartphone is very different from a lot of the software projects people discuss here in that there are a TON of moving parts to release something as functional as the iPhone.