But note that different complex-systems vendors rose to
prominence at different category transitions. In fact, it is
not reasonable to expect the winner in any given category
to be the winner in the next generation-winners have too
much incentive to extend the old franchise beyond the
deadline. But it is reasonable to expect them to stay in the
game, come in somewhere in the middle ofthe pack, and be
in place to come to the fore in a subsequent transition.
While Digital passed IBM in minicomputing, IBM retook
the lead in personal computers. Similarly, after Sun took the
early lead in Unix workstations, HP passed it in Unix client
servers-but Sun retook the lead in Unix-enabled Internet
computing.