The failure of Blackberry to foresee the impact of the next-generation of smartphones on its business will go down in corporate history as one of the biggest opportunities missed, and a total failure of strategy.
Apple is too big and too smart to make such a mistake (presumably), yet it is in danger of being left behind by the likes of Google and Amazon in the race to win hearts, minds and voices of consumers.
Parallels from history are rarely exact replicas. Learning from history requires we look for similarities in patterns despite differences in details.
iPhone introduced a new set of expectations around what a smart mobile device could and should do. Blackberry maintained its focus on the existing market paradigm.
Notably, Google saw what was happening even before iPhone launched, bought Android, replicated key iPhone features and surged to global dominance (more on that below).
The rest if history. Yet, fast forward to 2018 and where is Apple when conversations about voice take place?