Title
The fall of a Silicon Valley icon:
Was Apple really Betamax redux?
Date
3/14/2008
(Original Publish Date: 12/12/2002)
(Original Publish Date: 12/12/2002)
Abstract
The paper first reviews the Betamax derived theories of network-based industry competition that, according to received wisdom, explain Apple’s fate. It then examines the evidence for four possible explanations for Apple’s fall: its failure to license its technology, its premium pricing strategy, errors in its product strategies/execution, and poor operational efficiency. It also presents Apple’s contemporaneous fears that making the Macintosh standard ubiquitous (as IBM had done with the IBM PC) would not necessarily translate into company success.
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