Martin's electric guitars were a miserable failure primarily because the electronics were inferior. If you look at the history of the electric guitar's development, the real breakthroughs for Fender were their development of good single-coil pickups, and the Stratocaster bridge/vibrato. It is also important to remember that Fender's amplifiers were at least 50% of the equation.
For Gibson, it was their invention of the PAF humbucker which bolstered their success. In both cases, their most popular guitars are still just solid blocks of wood.
Martin still outsources all their electronics. I think they recognize their own limitations, and undertand what they do best.
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