Originally Posted by
terrymorse
fify
Capitalism, baby! It is that simple.
tbf, I think reality lies somewhere between "Consumers are slaves to Corporations!" and "Corporations are slaves to Consumers!" Consumers can only buy what's offered, but OTOH, there are plenty of examples of companies doing very poorly making bets on what consumers will buy. Shimano's history in the 1980s has a bunch of examples - Dyna Drive pedals, the Dura Ace and 600 AX groupsets, the Sante groupset.