Version one usually sucks.
The first electric cars were expensive and inconvenient and prone to failure. Early voice dictation software was almost unusable. Pioneering VR technology was clunky and limited.
When you ship version one there will be undiscovered bugs, use-cases not considered, productions and distribution woes due too hard to predict demand.
Shipping the first version of anything can be painful.
So why produce version one when you can let a competitor deal with the strife? Why not just wait until the kinks have been ironed out? Why not just watch and learn?
Because we don’t truly learn by watching. We must ‘do’.Because imitation of an end result doesn’t build competence in adaptability.
In the long run, innovators will have the systems, processes, instincts and lessons that will help ship a thousand ‘versions one’s’.
Imitators will be forever waiting.