PCs were lame for their time. They cost a couple thousand dollars, there was no software for them, and you really couldn't do much with them.
Search was lame for its time. You couldn't actually find anything, that's why we all had to use portals and directories instead.
Social networking online was lame for its time. What are you, some kind of nerd who doesn't have any friends?
I think the meta-lesson here is that you don't want your product to be lame. You want your product to be exceptional, given what's already out there. You want your market to be lame, but very fast-growing, such that in a couple years people won't think it's so lame anymore.
When Altair Basic came out? PCs had a huge ecosystem of software by the time I was born, in the 80s. The Altair was released in January 1975 and Altair Basic was released in March 1975.
Ditto Google - I don't recall search being all that useful. I went to Yahoo to find websites until I was introduced to Google in 2000.
Search was lame for its time. You couldn't actually find anything, that's why we all had to use portals and directories instead.
Social networking online was lame for its time. What are you, some kind of nerd who doesn't have any friends?
I think the meta-lesson here is that you don't want your product to be lame. You want your product to be exceptional, given what's already out there. You want your market to be lame, but very fast-growing, such that in a couple years people won't think it's so lame anymore.