[GreenKeys] Teletype Corp. History circa 1960

[Robert Nickels]

On 3/16/2023 3:10 PM, Harold Hallikainen via GreenKeys wrote:
>   How come Teletype did not become a major player in impact dot matrix and ink jet printing?

I'd say it was a classic example of "The Innovator's Dilemma" as 
described in Clayton Christensen's book of that name.   He observed that 
oftentimes the large dominant companies in an industry are unable to 
re-invent themselves quickly enough to take advantage of new disruptive 
technologies, and instead small new companies find a toehold and while 
initially underperforming, are faster and more agile and thus quickly 
grow and eventually take their place.     One reason this happens is the 
more dominant a company becomes, the more its thinking and resources are 
directed by its existing customers.    As Henry Ford put it “If I had 
asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

The turmoil that was inflicted on Teletype by being owned by AT&T 
certainly didn't help, but my guess is that even had that not been the 
case, companies like Seiko Epson, Okidata, HP, Star Micronics and others 
who were never traditional competitors in the teleprinter business would 
have applied the new printer technologies more effectively to become 
leaders in the new microcomputer-based industry.

73, Bob W9RAN