One was the development of Compton

One was the development of Compton CD, which Encyclopaedia Britannica launched before Encarta and which did not do well in the marketplace. The case does not discuss why Encyclopaedia Britannica experimented only with Compton’s and not the flagship product, but it is not hard for students to speculate. First, the full encyclopedia was too large to fit on a single CD with its limited memory size in the early 1990s. Wliile the technical restrictions may not have been the only reason, it limited what the firm could develop. Second, the printed books made an extraordinary amount of money. The firm exercised understandable caution about taking too many risks with something that worked so well in the marketplace. (There were also various other reasons, but these are less essential for the teaching points of this case.)