Really? I could have sworn google weren't the first search engine on the block, and Apple wasn't the first person to make 'smart' phones.
Apple will never be the first "person" to do anything.
With that said, point taken.
Corporations are people too.
I'll believe that when Texas executes one of them.
Right, but to be the first mover you need to at least get most of the idearight. Just because you got a shitty landing page website up first doesn't mean you can't get steamrolled two months later by somebody who had his stuff together.
"First-mover advantage" is overrated and can be nullified by lack of resources, free-rider effects, and API closings.
EDIT: closures > closings
Except for all the cases where the guy who came in later had his shit together (unlike the incumbents) and took over.
That's about completely changing the game, though. You can't beat an incumbent, just by doing the same thing as he is, but better. You need a product that changes a lot of the rules of the competition in that market, and then you need for the market and customers to follow that vision as well. Only then an incumbent can be beaten because they will be slow to adapt to the new rules.