This item from Business Week is interesting not just for the content but for the insight it gives into the development of free markets in technology. (i.e. when Government agencies – such as the UK’s NHS PASA, for example – do not interfere.) A company is first in the market and develops a substantial lead. A while later, other companies come in with newer and potentially cheaper or easier-to-use alternatives. They grow and make a nice living on a small portion of sales that would otherwise have gone to the market leading company. However, the chances of them overturning the leader are slim because the leader’s customers are too heavily committed to it. In the end, despite bitter rivalry between the companies, they both need each other, if only to differentiate their services.
Business Week: Medicine’s Next Big Battlefield: Your Home.