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entries for 2002/10/11
first mover WHAT?!?!
According to some naysayer over at Slate, TiVo's all but dead. No comment on that.
But listen to this:
You can ascribe TiVo's struggles to the business axiom known as "first-mover disadvantage." Technology pioneers typically get steamrollered, then look on helplessly from the sidelines as a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies make billions. First movers, the theory goes, are too smart for their own good, churning out gizmos that are too expensive or too complex for the average consumer's taste.
This paragraph struck me as very, very odd because the business axiom I'm familiar with is called first mover advantage. It says
the first to market (amazon, ebay, yahoo, blogger) captures market share up front, and everyone else is forced to pit themselves
against the well-known brand. As the book Positioning: the battle for your mind explains, you want to be first to market, and if you're not, you want to be as different as possible from the incumbents.
So which is it? First mover advantage? Or first mover
disadvantage? I decided to run a detailed scientific study,
which involved typing both phrases into the form at Googlefight and pressing a button. "First mover advantage" won with 21700 hits,
versus 220 hits for the competitor.
By a striking coincidence, my business had its own first-mover question today. You may not know this, but for quite some time,
cornerhost offered CVS hosting. In fact, I still offer CVS hosting
if people ask about it, and I have been planning to launch a separate brand dedicated to that concept. Today I got an email from a guy at sourcehosting.net offering to give me a referral fee if I sent CVS customers his way.
I had hoped to be the first mover in the CVS hosting department. So
it looks like I've got a competitor.
On the other hand, I could change my plans and take his offer.
I'll have to think about it.
what I learned from my new drivers license
Hmm. According to my license, I weigh 180 pounds, am an organ donor, and cannot legally drive without glasses or contact lenses. Guess which one of these statements is incorrect. :)