Call it the copycat syndrome or marketing burnout wherein a company has a success with one product at which point every company in the space copies the effort leaving a market dotted with me-too products with little differentiation other than price. Eventually through this process value is suctioned out of the product or service, demand wanes, and consumers move on. It is almost impossible to satisfy consumer desire for the cheapest or most innovative product/technology/service/oh-heck-anything, particularly because in the end the equilibrium price may well be zero and innovation may be defined as simply announcing that something is innovative.
Sometimes, particularly with software or the internet (which move much faster than PV technology development), ennui with the copycat syndrome drives innovators to ask new questions and these questions lead to new directions and products – for example, something will replace apps and disrupt not only software but the tablets, cell phones and computers that are now set up as app delivery devices.
