IMHO, the progression that explains the current state of things is: {vendor power decrease} led to {fierce competition on unit price} led to {consolidation of

IMHO, the progression that explains the current state of things is: {vendor power decrease} led to {fierce competition on unit price} led to {consolidation of vendors and manufacturing cost minimization / volume maximization} led to {offshore lower cost manufacturing} led to {decreased design agility} Consequently, there's less appetite for the type of wild experiments that characterized 1950s and 1960s design. Low volume = not interested It used to be that tech was insulated from the phenomenon, but I think Google shows the same progression playing out. It just took tech longer to consolidate.