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Lego Mindstorms being neglected

Opinion
Nov 28, 20051 min
Data Center

Lego Mindstorms, a robot building system based on Lego, is being allowed to fossilize. Considering how enthusiastically Lego’s Robot Invention System (RIS) was greeted by the market (it has generated a sizeable list of third party how-to books) it seems that the company is not behind the product — see this interesting article by Usman Latif. He writes:

Clearly, there is strong demand for Mindstorms sets, Lego needs Mindstorms sets to combat its diminishing market share, and Lego can produce Mindstorms sets cost-effectively as well. There does not seem to be any obvious rational reason for holding back support for the Mindstorms line but Lego is doing exactly that.

Curious how a company that has gained significant mindshare in a niche can ignore what appears to be a unique marketing opportunity. Latif concludes that “Lego is too obsessed with growth strategies that have worked in the past but are no longer relevant. … For Lego, growth is only a matter of putting the pieces together creatively.

mark_gibbs

Mark Gibbs is an author, journalist, and man of mystery. His writing for Network World is widely considered to be vastly underpaid. For more than 30 years, Gibbs has consulted, lectured, and authored numerous articles and books about networking, information technology, and the social and political issues surrounding them. His complete bio can be found at http://gibbs.com/mgbio

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