Starting a Tech Business: A Practical Guide for Anyone Creating or Designing Applications or Software

More on Catalysts

Industry veterans will tell you that their success was due to spotting catalysts and riding them out. Though they may phrase it in various ways, that's what they mean. As long as the high-tech industry has existed, it's perpetuated a fairly aggressive growth-death cycle driven by the kind of catalysts I mentioned. A big one early on was the semiconductor, which created a new industry in mini computers (they wouldn't look mini to anyone today). These allowed users to run something resembling modern software. Dramatic price/performance reductions in subcomponents arose, which led to the emergence of the PC and cheaper computers that companies used. This set the stage for modern operating systems like Windows and Mac OS.

I'm sure you know that story: It's high-tech's Coke vs. Pepsi. But it had a clear economic winner in the PC space: Windows. (Apple's resurgence has been in the current “post-PC era.”) The Internet was not as widespread in the last 15 years or so, and the average user did most things on the PC itself. Before the widespread availability of Internet and cloud-based applications, the operating system on your computer really constrained what you could do with your applications. Microsoft focused on compatibility and partnerships, and Mac focused on product quality through integrated design, arguably falling prey to the Python of Monolithic Architecture in trying to do too much. Though I prefer the Mac myself, the company was on the wrong side of the key ...