It's an object lesson that in order to create a winning new product, it has to be 100-200% better than the existing ones, not just 10-50% better.
Microsoft has had the same issue with its own upgrade (Windows XP), although that's a bit more debatable. I think it's a similar lesson though.
- How painful the status quo is for the market; do existing solutions have a perception of being 'good enough' or are folks screaming for something better? (People feel Google is good enough: a -ve for MS.)
- What are the switching costs? (Switching between search engines is relatively easy: a +ve for MS.)