Top 10 IT empire downfalls Apple must heed despite iPhone 5 fervour

Firm must avoid the fate of Nokia, Sony or Kodak

Nothing lasts for ever but right now it's hard to imagine a day when Apple won't be the darling of the technology world, where its products would be greeted with indifference by the market and its share price merely stagnates.

Right now, it commands endless coverage from media outlets of all shapes and sizes, breaks records with each subsequent product release and only this week has seen its share price break $700 and today sees the launch of the iPhone 5 to huge crowds of eager fans.

However, Apple would do well to remember the fate of many of its industry brethren who have occupied similarly heady positions in the market over the years only to find themselves suddenly looking out of date and antiquated when younger, faster rivals outperformed them.

No doubt Apple is aware of this, having come close to oblivion year ago, but even so, we thought we'd remind them of a few similar firms who probably never thought the days of plenty would ever end.

10. Kodak rests on its laurels for too long

Children will look incredulous when we explain the old way photographs had to be developed, using film that was taken to a chemists and then collected three days later.

For Kodak those were halcyon days, when it commanded huge revenues thanks to its market position as one of the main suppliers of film camera the world over.

However, once the digital revolution began it should have realised the jig was up and moved quickly to reposition itself as a printing company. But it failed to realise what was happening all around it and earlier this year filed for bankruptcy.

Compare this with FujiFilm, which saw the transition ahead of time and reacted accordingly, and now continues to proper in other markets such as displays, printing and imaging equipment.

Top 10 IT empire downfalls Apple must heed despite iPhone 5 fervour

Firm must avoid the fate of Nokia, Sony or Kodak

9. Sega outgunned in consoles battle

One of the founding fathers of gaming, back in the days of cartridge 8-bit gaming Sega was all but untouchable, with gamers being split into two camps; those that played Sonic and those that played Mario.

However, coming into the digital age, Sega suffered setback after setback, with its Sega CD peripheral failing to entice customers and its Sega Saturn game console losing out to Sony's PlayStation.

Come the release of its final console, the Sega Dreamcast, the company was all but broke and had little choice but to bow out of the market and refocus purely on game development.

8. Microsoft misses mobile trends

Obviously Microsoft isn't a struggling company but it's not what it once was and it's slow reaction to the mobile trends that have rocketed around it have left it playing catch up against more nimble rivals.

Its Windows Phone platform is only now at a level where it can be considered a true rival to Apple and Android, while making its Surface tablet shows how its come to view its manufacturing partners with a level of distrust in the face of Apple's quality products.

Meanwhile in search Google left it standing and despite efforts with Bing to catch up it's still a long way behind its arch-rival.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s Microsoft had it all its own way though. In fact it's only major issue back then related to competition concerns that it was too dominant in the market.

Now it's heading up campaigns against Google on the same issues, a telling indicator of how far things have changed.

7. Yahoo turns down too-good-to-be-true offer

It seems almost unbelievable that Yahoo turned down an offer of a staggering $44bn from Microsoft for the firm but in 2005 that's exactly what happened.

At that time, with all kinds of revenue streams generating huge earnings for the company it was perhaps ever-so-slightly justified in its belief Microsoft was "undervaluing" the brand, but with hindsight (a wonderful thing) it was a ridiculous position to take.

Now, after several different chief executives have come and gone, Marissa Mayer is the latest to try her hand at turning things around, and so far seems to be doing a fairly reasonable job as most headlines being made by the company are positive.

Now, if it could just lose that ridiculous exclamation mark!

Top 10 IT empire downfalls Apple must heed despite iPhone 5 fervour

Firm must avoid the fate of Nokia, Sony or Kodak

6. Facebook ignores mobile market to send stocks southward

For years Facebook's flotation on the stock market was the biggest story in town, as investors fell over themselves to lavish praise on the firm and predict huge gains for the share price.

However, Facebook was not as well placed as it liked to think, with its efforts in the mobile space leaving plenty to be desired, as admitted by Mark Zuckerberg, and advertisers like General Motors giving the firm a rude awakening that all was not quite so rosy with spending to promote on the platform.

Since the day of its floatation its share price has slumped and some of the firm's allure has been erased, living it battling to convince the market its got what it takes to make serious money, and keep users interested, as rivals such as Twitter and Google+ continue to attract more interest.

5. Myspace lost its groove

How quickly could you lose in excess of $500m? It's a quandary most of us will never have to give serious thought to. But if you're a senior executive at the Rupert Murdock-run News Corp, the answer might just be six years.

That's how long it took between the social networking pioneer, Myspace, being acquired by News Corp for $580m before being dumped for a paltry $35m.

In that time, Myspace briefly surpassed Google as the most visited website in the US and generated $800m in revenues for 2008. But things quickly turned sour – no least because of the rocketing popularity of Facebook.

The site which had been the go-to destination for music artists and their fans rapidly became the butt of jokes, as it became a virtual ghost town. If that wasn't enough, it finally ended being sold to a company in which Justin Timberlake holds a stake.

Top 10 IT empire downfalls Apple must heed despite iPhone 5 fervour

Firm must avoid the fate of Nokia, Sony or Kodak

4. Sony lets its assets go to waste

For years Sony was the biggest name in technology - it owned all the coolest gadgets, the best games and controlled one of the world's largest music collections.

However, it failed to capitalise on this by failing to produce a quality MP3 device in the late 1990s or early 2000s, instead watching as Apple's iPod ate up market share, forcing Sony into a position of weakness when it came to negotiating for access to its music database on iTunes.

What's more, its reputation in the gaming and security worlds took a hit when hackers took it to task for taking legal action against those that had hacked into its Playstation software, causing huge damage to the company's reputation.

It's first forays in the tablet space have also proved uninspiring and all this has led to huge losses amounting to around $2bn.

3. HP management dramas send firm off course

In April 2010, HP was riding high. Its stock had only ever been worth more during the dot com bubble. But since then it's been beset by troubles.

It is possible to pin the blame on HP's subsequent troubles on the departure of Mark Hurd - the chief executive who promised to turn around the mess he'd inherited from Carly Fiorina, until his abrupt departure under an expenses-related scandal hit the firm.

His successor, Leo Apotheker, proved ill-suited to the job, with the firm lurching from one crisis to another. The appointment of Meg Whitman as chief executive has provided some stability, but there is scant evidence a Lazarus-like revival is underway as job cuts mount.

Hurd, though, cannot escape blameless. His gimlet-eyed focus on numbers jarred with many, crushing morale at the firm. Worse, he seems to have been oblivious to the tectonic changes underway in the industry that have left the firm playing catching up.

As a result of all this, while back in April 2010 HP's share price was in touching distance of $54, these days, it's below $20.

Top 10 IT empire downfalls Apple must heed despite iPhone 5 fervour

Firm must avoid the fate of Nokia, Sony or Kodak

2. Nokia finds itself stuck on a burning platform

There was a time around 2003 when nearly everyone owned a Nokia device and the firm was probably pretty happy watching this state of affairs from its eyrie in Finland.

Fast-forward to 2008 and things were starting to change: Apple was on the charge with its iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices were grabbing businesses' attention and manufacturers realised they could outgun Nokia's somewhat dated software and hardware.

Now in 2012 Nokia is struggling to keep up with the market, after it realised it was stuck on a "burning platform" and had to pin its hopes on Microsoft's Windows Phone software and new Lumia device.

How the firm must wish it had noticed the smartphone trend back in 2007 and caught the curve as it arrived, rather than having to play catch up and face a long uphill climb.

1. Research in Motion loses its CrackBerry addicts

Like Nokia, Research in Motion (RIM) has plenty to curse when it looks back.

At one point it was the darling of the corporate world and there wasn't an executive in an office across the world who didn't want to be seen manically typing emails into the keypad.

So popular was this, the term CrackBerry was even invented to describe the addiction many felt for the device.

However, the failure to admit that touchscreens are better that Qwerty keyboards, a rather dated design and a series of embarrassing outages have left RIM staring down the barrel.

Even its new software isn't due until 2013 which by then might be too late, as the market moves at a rapid pace, with Apple leading the field - for now.