Resetting the Score

Great piece by Benedict Evans, comparing the iPhone to the HMS Dreadnought, the first modern naval battleship:

The Dreadnought also created a problem. The Royal Navy had been funded since 1889 on the ‘Two Power’ rule — that it would not only be the strongest in the world but that it would also be stronger than the next two largest navies combined. Hence, the day before the Dreadnought was launched it had 32 battleships where Germany had 11 — a huge lead. The day after, it effectively only had one. It had to start again. The naval supremacy question was reset.

This is rather what the iPhone did, to both the mobile business and the entire consumer technology industry. All the existing parameters and entrenched advantages went away and the whole market was reset to zero.

★ Thursday, 15 January 2015