The Long Tail Theory: Niches Galore

Companies selling at least one of 98% of items every quarter is very surprising to me as it was to Anderson. Although my business is not involved in sales, it is interesting to see the importance of those items that do not sell has much and the shape of the sales curve is flattening. It seems as though as the world flattens in a Friedmanesque manner, the sales distributions of the product arrays will also flatten. People will like more selection because they can find exactly what they want, which is interesting to me because I think about the success of Apple and their megaproduct releases (such as iPhone and iPad releases), and how their product lines contradict this theory. But then I think about things I have purchased on the internet recently and those products are mostly specialized, unique products that are even tailored to me.
Overall, I think the Long Tail theory shows that there are thousands more niche market opportunities made because of the internet. It may not make sense to have certain products physically in the store down the street, but it does make sense to have a place where everyone in the world can purchase specialized products.