He who laughs last, yada yada.

Some industry observers view Fidelity [profile] as a bumbling giant for coming so late into ETFs, launching ten sector products last week.

However, RIABiz's Lisa Shidler writes that Fido's Tony Rochte, president of SelectCo, may still laugh best.

In her analysis of the subject, she writes:

Its executives have no intention of staking the future on passively invested ETFs. Their future involves revolutionizing the ETF industry by making ones that outperform the stock averages, says Anthony Rochte, president of SelectCo, Fidelity�s dedicated sector-investing division.

Indeed, RIABiz editor Brooke Southall adds in a note to the story:

The ETF market is pretty big and growing impressively but it is still early days and represents only about 10% of mutual fund assets. So, for now, I think we should take Fidelity seriously when it says that when it comes to ETFs, the best is yet to come.