I know this article is about media that can be distributed digitally which has fundamentally different dynamics that real world objects, but I think that the th

I know this article is about media that can be distributed digitally which has fundamentally different dynamics that real world objects, but I think that the thinking behind it is what caused me to think that, with international supply chains and an ever-growing market, that niche hardware products would also become more common. That has proven to be almost exactly the opposite, as is most clearly demonstrated in the smartphone market: despite getting larger every year, the breadth of available hardware configurations is every narrowing as companies compete solely the median consumer. I don't quite understand why it isn't possible to survive catering to an (objectively large, but proportionally small) niche consumer, but it is apparently not possible.