Top Six Missed Business Opportunity
The following is the top six missed business opportunities from an article in Digg.
Patents for a MP3 player
In the late 70's Kane Kramer came up with a device that would now be known as an MP3 player.
His sketches from 1979 show a credit card-sized player with a rectangular screen and a central menu button to scroll through a selection of music tracks using arrows for left, right, up and down.
By 1986, the IXI could store 5 minutes of music and was described as "the most radical system yet -- a music recorder on a chip."
In 1988, on the brink of commercial success, the company was split by a boardroom coup. Distracted and unable to raise money in time to renew patents across 120 countries, Kramer watched as the technology became public property.
Now the Ipod is the worlds fastest selling electrical equipment ever.
The literary agent.
The first agent to whom J.K. Rowling sent Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone rejected her in little more than a day. Her second agent, Christopher Little, was turned down by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury said yes a year later.
Decca Records and the Beatles.
In January 1962, The Beatles were turned down by Decca Records because they were considered too similar to the Shadows. They signed with Parlophone and became the world's most famous band.
Windscreen wipe-out.
In 1967, Robert Kearns invented the intermittent car windscreen wiper. He took the idea to Ford but after several years of talks, the company began offering the wipers without paying Kearns, who sued. The legal battles dragged on for more than 20 years. Although Kearns eventually won $10.7 million (Pounds 6 million) from Ford, he lost his case against General Motors.
The forgotten genius.
Nikola Tesla,a Serbian immigrant to America, invented the modern electric power system, the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, the speedometer and the basics behind radio, radar and the microwave oven. Others made millions from his inventions but he was paid a flat $216,000 fee.
The other Bill Gates.
Software genius Gary Kildall invented the first operating system for PCs in the early Seventies but missed out on supplying IBM because he went flying instead of meeting company bosses. Bill Gates later sold IBM the MS-DOS system
My take on the missed business opportunities Kane Kramers MP3 player was at least 10 years to early to be finiancialy viable. The main reasons was the hadware needed wasnt available and Napster was invented until 1999. No use having an mp3 players when mp3 wasn't widely available. If people think the majority of music being played on ipods are legal, then I have an island to sell them.
I read the Bill Gates mother was in the same board as the IBM chairman and that was a significant factor in MS-DOS being sold to IBM. But I would argue that Bill Gates is easily the most important factor in that deal and the success of microsoft.
So really the winner would be decided if you think Harry Potter franchise is worth more then the Beatles fanchise which would is a post I could do in the future.
Patents for a MP3 player
In the late 70's Kane Kramer came up with a device that would now be known as an MP3 player.
His sketches from 1979 show a credit card-sized player with a rectangular screen and a central menu button to scroll through a selection of music tracks using arrows for left, right, up and down.
By 1986, the IXI could store 5 minutes of music and was described as "the most radical system yet -- a music recorder on a chip."
In 1988, on the brink of commercial success, the company was split by a boardroom coup. Distracted and unable to raise money in time to renew patents across 120 countries, Kramer watched as the technology became public property.
Now the Ipod is the worlds fastest selling electrical equipment ever.
The literary agent.
The first agent to whom J.K. Rowling sent Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone rejected her in little more than a day. Her second agent, Christopher Little, was turned down by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury said yes a year later.
Decca Records and the Beatles.
In January 1962, The Beatles were turned down by Decca Records because they were considered too similar to the Shadows. They signed with Parlophone and became the world's most famous band.
Windscreen wipe-out.
In 1967, Robert Kearns invented the intermittent car windscreen wiper. He took the idea to Ford but after several years of talks, the company began offering the wipers without paying Kearns, who sued. The legal battles dragged on for more than 20 years. Although Kearns eventually won $10.7 million (Pounds 6 million) from Ford, he lost his case against General Motors.
The forgotten genius.
Nikola Tesla,a Serbian immigrant to America, invented the modern electric power system, the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, the speedometer and the basics behind radio, radar and the microwave oven. Others made millions from his inventions but he was paid a flat $216,000 fee.
The other Bill Gates.
Software genius Gary Kildall invented the first operating system for PCs in the early Seventies but missed out on supplying IBM because he went flying instead of meeting company bosses. Bill Gates later sold IBM the MS-DOS system
My take on the missed business opportunities Kane Kramers MP3 player was at least 10 years to early to be finiancialy viable. The main reasons was the hadware needed wasnt available and Napster was invented until 1999. No use having an mp3 players when mp3 wasn't widely available. If people think the majority of music being played on ipods are legal, then I have an island to sell them.
I read the Bill Gates mother was in the same board as the IBM chairman and that was a significant factor in MS-DOS being sold to IBM. But I would argue that Bill Gates is easily the most important factor in that deal and the success of microsoft.
So really the winner would be decided if you think Harry Potter franchise is worth more then the Beatles fanchise which would is a post I could do in the future.
posted by George at 3:56 pm
1 Comments:
Good to know those facts. I just wonder it hurt them to see they missed the opportunity to richness. They're probably thinking that the money turned to stone in a blink of their eyes.
It might be a failure for them in the past but us, we still have the chance to win the battle so it's better start taking business opportunities and do the right thing for successful future.
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