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A comment on Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry. Parent comment

Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by nordsieck on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @08:57PM (#40518971)
> At some point, the big company gets complacent or it gets so large it is bogged down in bureaucratic red tape or any other negative thing attributed to bigCorp loss of leadership in markets from the past. Then, as this sector likes to say "it's ripe for disruption."

I think it's inevitable that that's SpaceX's fate in the fullness of time.

But it seems like it'll be a while for them. They aren't indulging in typical market-leader behavior. They have kept their prices low - the market leader there by a substantial margin (based on $/kg to LEO). And they clearly have no problem making their best product obsolete via internal innovation. From what I recall, those are the 2 big pitfalls that entrenched market leaders tend to indulge in.

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Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by throwaway1105q on Thursday May 30, 2024 @02:17PM (#40526950)
I think the Mars goal helps them a lot with obsoleting their best product. It was obsolete from the start - they knew this one never goes to Mars, it's just a test bed for technologies and a money maker that helps them on the way. While other companies developed their best rocket and then tried to keep it running as long as possible to recoup the investment and make as much money from it as possible, Musk was talking about the next rocket before first Falcon 9 landing.
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