Nokia and Research in Motion are the latest tech companies to be caught in an innovation gap: Both are touting "next big thing" smartphones that are as much as a year away, while hoping to convince customers to continue buying their current -- in some cases soon-to-be-obsolete -- devices. To minimize losses, Wharton experts say, the firms should explore new markets and pricing schemes for the old products even as they try to maintain their presence in the rapidly evolving smartphone arena.

Within the next year, Facebook is expected to follow LinkedIn's lead and become a public company. Beyond speculation about what LinkedIn's recent successful IPO means for Facebook or other social media companies like Zynga, Groupon and Twitter, experts wonder whether going public will require a level of transparency from Facebook that could expose its weaknesses.