But these kinds of things also seem to follow a tech playbook, cheap parts show up, lots of hobbyist, small companies, etc start using them in low volume applic

But these kinds of things also seem to follow a tech playbook, cheap parts show up, lots of hobbyist, small companies, etc start using them in low volume applications. They work out the bugs, and the newer competitors parts keep getting better. The existing big company doesn't care because, as someone else pointed out they are maintaining a stable volume/revenue. Only, in the tech industry that's almost always a bad sign, the competitors are winning new designs that haven't yet really started to ramp, while the existing vendor is coasting on the current device using their parts. Then what happens is they get stuck in a declining revenue/volume situation while the newer cheaper better competitor slowly eats the market, and at that point investing in a "dying" product just about never happens.