Possibly, but I reckon it is more a case of the attitude of the relevant players.

In some cultures, companies still approach their business from a "provide a quality service for a reasonable price and the customers will come" philosophy. Are you old enough to remember companies like that in western countries?

Unfortunately in our capitalism at all costs way, too many companies approach their business from a "how much can we milk em for, how do we lock em in" philosophy.

So when there is some new you beaut tech just waiting for everyone, we get a situation aptly described in TFA as

"it is completely possible nothing will happen in mobile payments in the next five years if everybody keeps thinking only about their own piece of the puzzle."

Read as "piece of the pie"...

The classic story was the one about the Americans spending a $million creating a pen that worked in zero gravity.

The Ruskies? - they just used a pencil...

As if on cue, from two days ago...

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090107

You have never seen ms source code have you???

I could say something corny like "I for one bow to our new non-iterative overlords..."

But seriously, can you tell me for which languages iteration is not a core concept???

Are you a self taught vb programmer per chance?