The 5.2 billion dollar mistake.

Re:The 5.2 billion dollar mistake. by tobtoh on Monday November 01, 2010 @12:21PM (#1857009)

But how exactly do you know for certain that a problem is transitory without the benefit of hindsight?

Should Apple have never started with iphone development because Nokia/Ericson were rapidly innovating in the phone space? Iridium back in 1990 thought they had the equivalent of an Apple iphone in their solution.

I don't actually think the article contributed much in the way of insight. Without trying to be rude, your last sentence not to bet a business on a transitory problem is fairly self evident - the real value is if you can outline how to avoid stepping into such a situation without the value of hindsight (which the article fails to do).

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Re:The 5.2 billion dollar mistake. by davidcuddeback on Monday November 01, 2010 @02:13PM (#1857494)

I think the Iridium situation in 1990 was a limitation of silicon chips. Moore's Law pretty much guarantees that a problem caused by limitations in silicon will be transitory problems.

In the case of the iPhone, there was a lack of innovation. The silicon of the day was up to the task. It's just that nobody had a product like the iPhone. The closest you'd find would probably be a Blackberry.

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