Is your hit product a 'gateway product'?

"Remember the Flip video recorder? In 2009, it was a sensation-a dead-simple, pocket-size recorder that let ordinary people capture and share moments without lugging around a camcorder or figuring out complicated settings. Cisco acquired Flip's maker, Pure Digital Technologies, for $590 million in stock. Two years later, Cisco shut Flip down entirely. The Flip wasn't a failure. It solved a real problem elegantly."

"The history of innovation suggests that most game changers proceed through a series of gateways. We had fax machines before email, PalmPilots before BlackBerrys before iPhones, TiVo before streaming, MapQuest and GPS units before Google Maps. Each one mattered. Each one made money. And each one was eventually swept aside. The strategic challenge is to figure out what the shelf life of your gateway offering is. Gateways solve real jobs-with inherited constraints"

Flip exemplified a gateway product: a simple, focused device that solved a clear customer need—easy video capture and sharing—yet was overtaken by a more convenient platform. Gateway products validate demand while retaining inherited constraints from prior methods, making them vulnerable to disruptive substitutes that eliminate those constraints. Historical examples include fax machines before email, PalmPilots and BlackBerrys before smartphones, TiVo before streaming, and MapQuest or GPS units before Google Maps. Each gateway generated revenue and mattered commercially but had limited shelf life. The strategic imperative is to assess how long a gateway offering will remain competitive before being supplanted.

Read at Fast Company