[colloydi]

>Fully elucidating these economic and cultural factors is a major future project of this blog

One rule of thumb seems to be that a new technology needs to be not merely better but ten times better than the alternative(s) for it to go viral. For instance, James Dyson built a washing machine with twin contrarotating drums. It was significantly better than conventional machines, but not ten times better when all costs were accounted for, e.g. the increased price and its unconventional larger size.

[rsynnott]

IIRC it was _not_ significantly better than conventional machines; "Which" found that it had the same performance as a mid-range Bosch.

Dyson's gadgets which really were significantly better than the contemporary competition tended to succeed, despite a cost premium. Notably the vacuum cleaners, of course.