What if I tell you that five years from now Google, Apple and Samsung will no longer be considered amongst the elite companies of the tech world? You would say that I talk nonsense and that I’m crazy, right? Because great companies like Google and Apple and so many other are destined to be at the top for ever. Although you might turn out to be right about those three tech giants after five years this doesn’t mean that I was completely wrong about every big company out there. If we had the same conversation 10 years ago you would have probably called me crazy again if I told you that Kodak or Nokia would fall in a few years from now. Today we’ll take a brief look at 5 Tech Giants that lost their edge
Kodak once was the king of the Film industry but the rise of digital photography would prove to be its undoing. Kodak had plenty of time to transit from the film industry to the digital age but instead of doing that they chose to keep matters as they are. This stance led to the downfall of this great company. The irony here is that a Kodak scientist had actually invented the first digital camera in 1975 but they chose to ignore it instead of embracing it.
2. Nokia
Nokia was dominating the mobile phone ecosystem with a market share as high as 50%. They used to be one of the strongest brands around but the rise of Apple and Android came to crush Nokia’s success. Nokia was hardware centric and used to underestimate the value of software. In the contrary Apple and Android knew the importance of a great Operating System. Symbian (Nokia’s OS) was way too slow and buggy to satisfy its users. Nokia overestimated the power of their brand and the outcome was catastrophic.
3. Atari
The Atari 2600 was a revolutionary console that brought arcade games to the television screen. Needless to say the console was a huge success for the time. It cleared the path for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to enter the gaming world. Although Atari 2600 was a huge success, the new version of the console (Atari 5200) was a flop. Over the years Atari failed to keep up with the competition and ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2014.
4. Yahoo
Back in the day Yahoo was untouchable. The billion dollar company was dominating the internet leaving every competitor behind. It was considered the best website around at the time with services such as mail, news, games etc. Yahoo had acquired big companies for the time like Flickr and GeoCities to expand its footprint .What’s incredible is that Yahoo turned down an offer to buy Google…twice!!! A lack of vision has led Yahoo down the hill. Although Yahoo is trying to make a comeback, its future seems uncertain.
Sony was the company that revolutionized the music industry with the invention of the Walkman and compact disc. It was a leading tech company with a huge market share across the music and video industry. The technological giant failed to realise the value and rise of the MP3 leaving space for Apple to enter the audio market with the iPod which completely destroyed Sony. Samsung, meanwhile, made Sony’s TVs, once the industry leader, less desirable by being the first manufacturer to perfect the flat-panel design. Although the PlayStation remains a success, Sony is struggling to make a comeback and regain a position amongst the top of the tech world before it is too late.