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Zimki, the world's first Platform as a Service that belonged to Canon

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Re: Zimki, the world's first Platform as a Service that belonged to Canon

#31

Post by k__ »

blitzar wrote: post #29
k__ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to admit, while I like Wardley mapping, the fact that someone talks about his own (seemingly) failed technology revolution in hindsight, makes me a bit sceptic.

I find just as many lessons in failures as success, although these are pretty arbitrary labels. Even the greatest success stories are littered with small failures overcome or even ignored.

I'm not saying we can't learn from Zimki.

I'm just a bit weary of people claiming they "invented the future" way back before the future actually came.

Re: Zimki, the world's first Platform as a Service that belonged to Canon

#32

Post by 908B64B197 »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #24
908B64B197 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook won, when MySpace and others were first to market Facebook had a valuable userbase and a polished product (it looked good, no templates and music on auto-play) > Google won, and it was crazy late to market over Yahoo/Altavista/Excite. Google had a better product, plain simple. > Starbucks won, when plenty of other national coffee chains existed Starbucks won partly because it had "Italian coffee". Nobody e…

Starbucks won because they recreated a friendly living room. I always felt their coffee sucked, but their employees have always been nice, and friendly. I enjoyed getting out, people watching, and feeling zero pressure to buy anything, or leave. (I've noticed slight changes, like codes to the bathroom, but it's still my favorite place to hang. American perspective.)

> I always felt their coffee sucked

Most independents will be better, if there is any around.

Re: Zimki, the world's first Platform as a Service that belonged to Canon

#33

Post by webmaven »

k__ wrote: post #31
blitzar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find just as many lessons in failures as success, although these are pretty arbitrary labels. Even the greatest success stories are littered with small failures overcome or even ignored.

I'm not saying we can't learn from Zimki. I'm just a bit weary of people claiming they "invented the future" way back before the future actually came.

Simon doesn't claim he invented PaaS, but he did predict it.

As far as learning from Zimki, I think the lesson Simon says he learned was basically (paraphrasing) "make sure you don't run out of political capital" and watching out for misaligned incentives.

Re: Zimki, the world's first Platform as a Service that belonged to Canon

#34

Post by webmaven »

ignoramous wrote: post #18
webmaven wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, the examples you cite are of early entrants being outcompeted by later entrants. Zimki was shut down despite (or because of?) it's success and experiencing he initial stages of hypergrowth. The successful PaaS entrants didn't show up until after Zimki had been defunct for a while. You could also characterize this as "innovative startup strangled by acquiring behemoth or clueless greedy investors" which br…

> What makes Zimki interesting IMO is that Simon Wardley successfully "timed the market" of technological change, clearly explained his thinking, and has since applied the same logic to make other correct predictions (or give good strategic advice). Has Wardley mentioned why they didn't pursue the start-up route (like Eric Yuan at zoom.us did; or Benoit Dageville, Thierry Cruanes at SnowflakeDB did, to give recent ex…

Not so far as I know.

I always assumed that restrictive non-competes prevented moving quickly, and that Google's launch of AppEngine then sucked the oxygen from the room.

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