Thakrar stepped aside as CEO of the London-based Touchnote last year with the appointment of Oded Ran, former Head of UK Consumer Marketing for Windows Phone.
"The reality might be less serious than all the headlines are saying, " said Oded Eran, a senior research associate and former head of the Institute for National Security Studies.
In a book called Copycats, Professor Oded Shenkar takes an even more extreme position: first movers have an inherent disadvantage because they have to pave the way for something new.