The Rise and Fall of Iridium

Why did Iridium fail?

Iridium was a revolutionary new technology, which was incredibly useful, and had well-backed support for its launch. Yet the company came crashing down, falling short on projections and failing to reach required goals, eventually filing for bankruptcy and ultimately becoming one of the biggest tech failures in the last 20 years.

There are many reasons for why Iridium failed. Firstly, they severely overestimated the market demand, reaching only a fraction of their projected subscribers. Yes, the technology was advanced, but it was also extremely costly to implement, leading to very high prices for consumers. When cellular coverage was continuously expanding, offering prices remarkably lower than Iridum's $3000 handset and $3/min rates, there really was no sustainable need for the service. And even then, the majority of people who live out in areas not covered by cellular service probably wouldn't be able to afford the product anyway. The average person is not likely to spend so much money when a cell phone can deliver a similar service for a much more affordable cost. The added benefits of purchasing an Iridium handset hardly outweigh the substantial cost.

Next, Iridium was not successful because their handset was faulty, oversized, and unreliable. People paying $3000 for a product are expecting it to be fully functional with no difficulties, yet it had complications working indoors and around tall buildings. Paying a higher price for a service similar to one already offered, when it doesn't even function properly is nonsensical.

Lastly, Iridium had poor company management. They over-expanded their Board of Directors, spanning multiple language barriers, leading to insufficient communication and unfortunate decision making choices.

Who should be responsible for Iridium's failure?

The engineers of the product can't be held responsible for the failure as they designed the service but had no insight on the business...