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Still they outlasted, DEC, SGI, Pyramid and all the other minicomputer/workstation makers.


Yes, Sun and Digital (DEC) got killed by the same thing - Clayton Christensen on Digital (not Sun):

Every disruption has three components to it: a technological enabler, a business model innovation and a new commercial ecosystem. In computing, the technological enabler of disruption in computing was the microprocessor. It so simplified the design of a computer that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs could just slap one together in a garage. It transformed the industry’s fundamental technological problem—the design of a computer—from a problem that took hundreds of people several years to solve into one that was much simpler.

Then that simplifying technology had to be married with a business model that could take the technology into the market in a cost-effective and convenient way. Digital Equipment Corp. had microprocessor technology, but its business model could not profitably sell a computer for less than $50,000. The technology trapped in a high-cost business model had no impact on the world, and in fact, the world ultimately killed Digital. But IBM Corp., with the very same processors at its disposal, set up a different business model in Florida that could make money at a $2,000 price point and 20% gross margins—and changed the world. It’s a combination of the technology and business model that makes formerly complicated, expensive, inaccessible things affordable and accessible.

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache%3Asloanreview.mit.edu%2...


"It’s a combination of the technology and business model that makes formerly complicated, expensive, inaccessible things affordable and accessible."

this reminds me of google. they are essentially providing what used to be complicated and expensive tools at a much lower cost.




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