Xerox management didn’t know what they had and basically gifted the technology to Steve Jobs and Apple and the rest is history. How did they let this happen? It came down to vision. Nikon and Apple had it. Xerox and Kodak didn’t. These once revolutionary companies had fallen in love with their product and lost touch with their market. Kodak believed they could sell film forever because that’s what they sold. Forget that the market wanted speed, simplicity, and ease of use.
Ditto for Xerox. To Xerox management, their futuristic desktops were a cool novelty that helped them run their copier business. They couldn’t see the future in helping others to simplify their businesses by selling them the same tech. So, in a deal so lopsided it rivals the selling of Manhattan for a few pots and pans, they gave it away in exchange for help in making cheaper printers.