I think the comparison with the server market isn't completely accurate. When companies decided to go with Intel+Linux over Sun's mainframes, they actually did

I think the comparison with the server market isn't completely accurate. When companies decided to go with Intel+Linux over Sun's mainframes, they actually did go through a decision process. They weighted the pros and the cons of each solution. With cameras it's arguably much worse. Most people these days (especially those with enough disposable income to consider buying a dedicated camera) already own a smartphone. Camera makers see smartphones as competition but probably not so much the other way around. Apple and Samsung try to get better and better cameras because they compete with each other, they don't really care about Fuji or Canon. Camera makers are in the tough situation of having to sell a camera to people who already have one "for free". And they have to convince a crowd that now mostly consume images in low-res on a small screen. Good luck. With smartphone cameras becoming so good and the software letting anybody take good-looking (if heavily post-processed) pictures, I don't see how they could ever recover. Sun might have been able to win the fight on the server side by competing on price and features, I don't see how camera makers can ever hope to regain the lost market share. It's a completely one-sided competition. My girlfriend is a professional photographer. She owns a bunch of high-end cameras. They vastly outperform our smartphones' cameras, especially in low-light scenarios or while photographing fast-moving or far-away objects for instance (with the right optics of course). But if you just want to make low-res, mundane pictures for Instagram the difference is really not significant. My cheap-o Nokia 6.1 does the job just fine and it's much easier to operate than most pro cameras.