Who’s Eating Your Lunch?
Now as ever, success in business belongs to those ready to eat the lunch of a complacent rival—and the cycle of life completes itself as potential competitors of the future hit the scene.
Jerod Harris / Getty Images
AOL has been forced to become a content company and team up with Huffington Post now that we all get our Internet from the cable guy. Meanwhile, MySpace is sporting a FOR SALE sign and Borders is facing Chapter 11, while their competitors—Facebook and Amazon—brag of record growth and profits. Now as ever, success in business belongs to those ready to eat the lunch of a complacent rival—and the cycle of life completes itself as potential competitors of the future hit the scene. Here’s a guide to some of the business world’s biggest recent reversals of fortune.
Conqueror: Facebook
In Retreat: MySpace
Vanquished: Friendster
Future Threat: Quora
What Happened: Rupert’s $580 million prize is now the most painfully unhip neighborhood in cyberspace. Facebook was better designed—and has people you wouldn’t be embarrassed to call friends.
Conqueror: iPhone
In Retreat: BlackBerry
Vanquished: Nokia
Future Threat: Android
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What Happened: What did we use before the iPhone? Apparently a boxy device with actual buttons called a BlackBerry. Now two thirds of Verizon BlackBerry owners say they want to switch to the JesusPhone.
Conqueror: Embraer
In Retreat: Bombardier
Vanquished: Fairchild Dornier
Future Threat: Sukhoi; Honda
What Happened: That annoying four-to-a-row jet you just flew on? Embraer’s crushing the competition with them. Last year it won orders for 55 jets to Bombardier’s nine at the Farnborough air show.
Conqueror: Netflix
In Retreat: Blockbuster
Vanquished: TiVO
Future Threat: Apple TV
What Happened: Blockbuster loved late fees. Netflix loves unlimited rentals and, now, online streaming at warp speed. Now, back to Saw V.
Conqueror: Google
In Retreat: Yahoo; Ask
Vanquished: AltaVista
Future Threat: Blekko
What Happened: Let’s face it: when you want to do a vanity search, you don’t Yahoo yourself. But maybe the day will come when you’ll Blekko yourself.
Conqueror: Amazon
In Retreat: Borders
Vanquished: The Shop Around the corner
Future Threat: Apple
What Happened: Amazon has instantly downloadable, fully searchable e-books. Borders has a guy named Tim at the information desk who’s reading Job Searching for Dummies.
Conqueror: CANON
In Retreat: Kodak
Vanquished: Polaroid
Future Threat: Cell phones
What Happened: There hasn’t been a Kodak moment since the Clinton administration. But these days, who needs a camera without a friends-and-family plan?
Conqueror: Xbox Kinect
In Retreat: WII
Vanquished: PlayStation
Future Threat: Apple TV
What Happened: While Mario and Luigi were fighting over the princess, Microsoft was selling 8 million Kinect units worldwide. Nintendo swears its coming 3-D Game Boy will give the company an extra life.