Amazon’s widely anticipated Android-based reader / tablet, the Kindle Fire, launches this week, and it’s already receiving great reviews. There’s a ton of media and consumer energy behind it, and there’s no question it’ll sell succesfully. One lesson here is you don’t have to be first to market with a product or service to create market passion and big sales. In fact, it’s better not to be first. 

The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. There were countless smart phones before the iPhone. The iPad was not the first tablet. And the Kindle was preceded by years of other book readers. Each product improved dramatically on its predecessors, and entered a category with a critical mass of existing mainstream interest. But the heavy lifting of building that interest was done by others. The road was already paved.