7 companies that won't make it to 2020

MSN Money ^ | 12/9/2009 | Michael Brush

[SeekAndFind]

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Potentially fatal flaws come in many forms. But three crop up the most when you talk to experts: excessive debt, superior competitors and the inability to keep up with technological change.

1. Palm

With the Treo, Palm (PALM, news, msgs) was an early pioneer of the move to smart phones. So it doesn't seem right that stronger competitors such as Apple (AAPL, news, msgs) and Research In Motion (RIMM, news, msgs) are now going to crush it. But that seems to be Palm's fate.

2. Sears

Sears remains one of the great mysteries in retail: It's not clear why it still exists. Yes, we know consumers love Craftsman tools, DieHard batteries and Kenmore appliances. But there's a fuddy-duddy aspect to its stores that makes it a wonder Sears has survived the current decade.

3. Blockbuster

Video rental icon Blockbuster is a great example of how technological change can crush winners that fail to keep up.

4. Eastman Kodak

The company that brought us Kodachrome spent most of its life as a near monopoly. Back in the good old days, it only had to face down Fujifilm.

5. Borders

Like Blockbuster, Borders (BGP, news, msgs) is getting hit by technological changes that leave it dazed and confused.

6. Magellan

Once a novelty, GPS -- the technology that plots your location via satellite -- is now ubiquitous. Besides dashboard GPS devices in cars, consumers can now get GPS access in smart phones and even cameras.

7. McClatchy

Technology has been particularly hard on the news business, as content has moved online but advertising dollars have been slow to follow. For smaller, undiversified newspaper companies burdened with huge debt loads, time is running out.

[SeekAndFind]

I agree with you on Macy's.

If that happens, I'm not sure what will happen to the traditional annual New York City MACY's THANKSGIVING PARADE. What will replace it ? Or will there be none by then...

[Lou L]

Sears is an enigma, and I agree with their “fuddy-duddiness.” I was very enthused by their partnership with Land’s End a few years ago, but locally, it’s been difficult to get a large variety. I was in a local Sear’s just the other day, and 90% of the LE items they had were for women. Mostly just coats for men, and some assorted short-sleeved polos.

[niteowl77]

Meanwhile library usage is actually going down in this country, so apparently people aren’t into waiting.

As recently as five years ago I loved our public library, but now it has become a meetinghouse for fellow travelers to network, a babysitter for welfare recipients and a puppet/bookreading/storytelling/folksong center catering to middle-class metrosexual daddies. Still, if they hadn't purged themselves of nearly everything but leftist political science books, alternate lifestyle apologetics and how to live "green" guides, I'd put up with the coexistence caucus.

But they have pared the books down by at least two-thirds in order to make room for trendy, PC crap on the taxpayers' dime. I'd be willing to wait if there was anything left, but there isn't.

Mr. niteowl77

[Borges]

Wow. The various public libraries around me have tons of stuff with a wide variety.

[GSWarrior]

2. Sears

Does this mean I won't have to finish paying off my Sears gold card?

[mysterio]

I hope Sears and Borders stick around. Some of the Craftsman tools are still American made, and I love browsing Borders for a book.

[clintonh8r]

I wouldn’t buy a product (usually at full retail) that a bunch of freeloaders are sitting around reading for free, soiling and thumbing the pages, all smug with their lattes. Amazon beats Borders and B&N’s asses because they provide great service at the best price (and free shipping for orders over $25 and NO SALES TAX). A lot of people must agree, otherwise Borders wouldn’t be in trouble. Borders has already filed bankruptcy in the UK.

[GSWarrior]

I remember when Blockbuster was called Video Library.

Cue the jingle

Watch what you want when you want it...
at Video Library.

[netmilsmom]

I was at Blockbuster two weeks ago.
Our new releases are 4.99. We JUST got RedBox up here, and our Libraries don’t rent 1st run movies (I know they do that in Cleveland where my family is)

I can reserve at Red Box and get any movie I want.

I also pay 8.99 for Netflix and watch tons of streaming movies.

I will never go back to Blockbuster.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Yep, Amazon is giving away a Kindle ap for computers...so even if you haven’t bought a Kindle, you can take advantage of the lower prices for Kindle ebooks and read them on your computer.

I love going to Borders once in awhile, but in truth, I buy most of my books and my music downloads from Amazon.

[Lurking in Kansas]

...watch a movie until 6 months later when my PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM will have it and I can borrow it for free ?

You're fortunate. Movies at MY library are about 2 years old ...and anything 'good' is always checked out.

[niteowl77]

Consider yourself fortunate. Until the low-profile book-banning began, I did not appreciate the importance of a library board that isn't composed of assorted leftist community activists. I suppose there is still a wide variety here for, say, a gay AGW believer with a penchant for Howard Zinn. There are far more people visiting the facility for reasons other than books, so I can't say they are not giving the proletariat what they want.

Mr. niteowl77

[Political Junkie Too]

This is the business model that began when music moved from vinyl to CD. At first, CD's were everywhere until the technology change put CD burners in every home. Now, the content providers don't have to have the manufacturing and distribution costs associated with pressing CD's and selling them in stores. They have outsourced the manufacturing of CD's to the home consumer.

It was only a matter of time before books followed the same model. Let the consumer access the content and distribute it themselves via a portable e-Readers. Now the publishers don't have to acquire paper stock, maintain printing presses, and add distribution costs.

The question is, how much will the content costs drop now that the publishing costs are pushed down to the consumer?

-PJ

[Ted Grant]

It would be sad to see Palm go. I have always liked their OS. My cell phone is a Centro and I love it- small, powerful and well suited to my everyday needs.

I’m not into seeing movies on my cell phone (I find the idea absurd, really) or surfing the internet on my cell phone (which I find stupid, too).

[freespirited]

I was really hoping Microsoft would be on the list.

[SeekAndFind]

I was really hoping Microsoft would be on the list.

If that happens, my career will be in jeopardy. I've just gone through an intensive course to be certified as a .NET developer and just learned to master programming in C#.

[Roses0508]

Agreed. Hubby had a Garmin, I have a Magellen. Its not just that I prefer my Magellen, its that both the maps and the reception are better. Hubby gave the Garmin to his Mom (who rarely leaves the city) and bought a Magellen. My daughter had GPS in her phone, but trying to drive, navigate off that tiny device, respond to a toddler, etc - hazardous. Those phones are not fit for camping or hiking - if you are the least bit out in the country, you have no signal so they are useless.

[Borges]

You can read the book on amazon as well in a limited fashion. It’s part of Borders and B&N business plan to position themselves as a community where people can come and socialize. It would not be a good idea to snap at people who read books in the store over a certain length of time.

[Pharmboy]

We have a Macy's here in our local mall, and every time I walk in there I say to myself: "How are they still open?"

Most of the time there are more floorwalkers and salespeople on the floor than customers.

I will say this, though: we went to 4 different stores looking for a sofa and came back to Macy's and bought it there. Best value around for some furniture items...no question.

[BelegStrongbow]

I see, the ‘Little Shop Around the Corner’ logic. That might work if Borders actually were a specialty bookseller, providing unusual books at a reasonable (if still rather high) price. They aren’t. They’re just trying to sell expensively what Amazon can provide cheaply. Think Amazon=Fox Books.