Karim Vaes

Origin
We have Mother Nature to thank for the expression low hanging fruit. A fruit-bearing tree often contains some branches low enough for animals and humans to reach without much effort. The fruit contained on these lower branches may be not be as ripe or attractive as the fruit on higher limbs, but it is usually more abundant and easier to harvest.

simple problem or target : a target that is easy to achieve, or a problem that is easy to solve
Pick the low-hanging fruit first by identifying the most obvious opportunities.

Business
The term low hanging fruit is often associated with the sale of consumer products or services. Sales professionals, especially those who are just entering the field, are encouraged to seek out the easiest customers first, which sales managers may call “low hanging fruit.” Competitors may spend more of their time seeking out the higher commission sales of higher “customer branches”, leaving the low hanging fruit behind for others to claim.

Good or Bad?
The idea of low hanging fruit can be viewed as both a positive and a negative. On the one hand, low hanging fruit is usually plentiful and often ignored by those looking for more attractive offerings. But low hanging fruit can also be seen as a negative, since the picker understands how low the quality of the fruit can be and picks it anyway. Someone who consistently chooses the immediate gratification of low hanging fruit could be seen by others as lazy or unambitious.

Conclusion
In a business, it makes sense to avoid low hanging fruit if a little more effort and time would result in a much better payoff. You can use it in though situations to generate easy revenue, but it will not yield you any significant market share. So if you keep focusing on low hanging fruits, then you’ll probably started your run towards the end.

Reference
WiseGeek