Ask HN: Which companies gained a competitive edge purely via engineering?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445780

by j1000 • 1 month ago

5 13 1 month ago

news.ycombinator.com

For example: WhatsApp or Crash Bandicoot (1996)?

mrhottakes2• 1 month ago

A long long time ago: Oracle

yepyoukno• 1 month ago

Uh, wut?

Try “Sun Microsystems”!

mrhottakes2• 1 month ago

That is another company that built an advantage with engineering, true.

bitbasher• 1 month ago

Bell Labs

hnthrow10282910• 1 month ago

Crazy company. Not sure any has existed like it with possibly the exception of early Google

AnimalMuppet• 1 month ago

SGI.

Hewlett Packard.

DEC.

farseer• 1 month ago

Google search was way better than yahoo or altavista

dennisjoseph• 1 month ago

Garmin

nimblist• 1 month ago

In theory they still do. I can't imagine giving up weeks of battery life for wondering whether it's going to last through the day but apple/galaxy watch buyers see differently by a massive margin

aristofun2• 1 month ago

Whatsapp, really?

Johanx64• 1 month ago

Before FB acquisition:

Yes, really, it ran on potato feature phones you've never even heard of. That can only happen if you really bend backwards to make it happen.

Massive userbase with very tiny team.

aristofun2• 1 month ago

Okay. Cause it still feels like running on a potato phone on latest iphone :)

j1000• 1 month ago

I recommend to read about WhatsApp how they scaled to nearly 1 billion users with only about 50 engineers. Also check how they optimised BE system.

Ask HN: Which companies gained a competitive edge purely via engineering?

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