The Case of Lock-ins

Mar 25 2008

In Taking Your Users For Granted I mentioned the need of maintaining the quality of your products above that of your competitors.

There is a widespread strategy used to get around the problem. Lock-ins. Make the switching costs very high. Microsoft, Apple and IBM did that successfully. Facebook does that well. Most of the web services do that too.

But then, lock-in rarely pays in the long run.

Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Facebook can boast of great products. Lock-ins can complement a great product, but cannot make a lousy product successful.

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