iPads and Snapchat - An Analysis of Niche

"Finding a niche is critical to market a successful product or business."  I think this is true, but slightly misses the target.  It's not as much finding a niche, but making it.

Let's look at the iPad.  Between computers and smartphones, I would've assessed that almost all of the market was occupied.  And it was.

However, when iPads (and tablets in general) started to gain more popularity, they created their own niche in the market.  Everything that an iPad can do can also be done on a smartphone or a tablet.  Somehow the iPad was able to push aside the control of both, and claim its own niche right in the middle.

Another example of this concept is the smartphone application Snapchat.  It's essentially texting photos Twitter style.  Snapchat was nothing new.  Phones could take pictures and send them to friends perfectly fine.  But Snapchat took a slight twist by removing some of the downsides to constantly sharing photos, such as the space they take up and that people have the pictures you send forever.  I remember the first time I heard of Snapchat - it was ridiculous and served no new purpose. As I started to use it however, I realized that it was something completely different that managed to find its own niche where I thought there was none.

I guess this just goes to show that niche and total market area are not static - if your idea is good enough, the market will adapt to it, not the other way around.