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The Installed Base Problem:
Our Sub-Par Products & Services & Systems
When I taught writing at MIT, my primary area was working with the computer science majors. One of the choices people in that department made — from undergraduates to graduate students to faculty — was hard to miss: almost no one used Windows products; they either used Apple or Linux, the freeware operating system. This was particularly noticeable to me because I am not part of the “Fruit Cult” that is Apple — which caused periodic compatibility problems.
The comp-sci people would point to this as an example of “the installed base problem,” basically meaning that “a superior new product is often crushed by an inferior product that has already become ‘the standard.’”
One can argue that the dominance of Windows is “the market opting for compatibility over innovation.” One can ascribe hesitance to moving to “better products” as a Classical Conservative caution about “changing too much too fast too lightly.” One can note that “change is rarely free.” One can argue that this provides incentives for “incumbents” to do all they can to “strangle innovation in the cradle.”
Your call.
Once you’ve named it, you begin to see how ubiquitous this problem is — and the degree to which this tendency is a danger to us both day-to-day and in the long term.