Competing With Apple: 'Great Products May Not Even Be Necessary'

A Dartmouth strategy professor on why Amazon may succeed and the Androids could fail Fire and iPad "The innovation game is changing," writes Dartmouth's Ron Adner in the Harvard Business Review. "Delivering great products is no longer sufficient for success. And as the [Amazon's Kindle] Fire's limited memory, ho-hum processor, and lack of camera demonstrate, great products may not even be necessary. Rather, what matters is delivering great solutions." The key to success in consumer electronics these days, Adner maintains, is building and maintaining relationships -- with consumers and with partners. This is something Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) understand.