Creating A New Sub-Category

If a company can create a product or a service that has
features that are valuable and unique they have created
a new subcategory.

New industry sub-categories are based on existing industries but add a component to it that has a crucial impact on its usage? Best examples are Apple's invention of the Personal Computer, Henry Ford's production of better cars, and Lyft's filling a new niche in the rideshare industry.

The most successful brands have created a new category in their industry.

Once I heard the saying that nerds & hippies were typically the ones that create new categories because they tend to dislike mediocracy or status quo. They typically don't make decisions based on a set number of choices. They would decide for a solution outside of the norm. Steve Jobs also calls this phenomenon "jumping curves." What he means by that is that every product or any other development follows a life cycle that typically starts slow, accelerates and then falls off. His point is that, as a company, creating a new category means to jump on the next life cycle (curve) that is propelled by a product that is 10 times better (not twice as good) and that replaces the current product. Successful businesses do just that, being the first to jump onto the next curve.

Steve Jobs once said: "There were too many people at Apple and the Apple Ecosystem paying the game of 'for Apple to win Microsoft has to lose'. And it was clear that you didn't have to play that game. Apple did not need to beat Microsoft. Apple had to remember who Apple was." – Steve Jobs August 1997

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