The parallel is surely with the PC industry - Intel dominate chip manufacture and Microsoft dominate operating systems. In the corporate sector a few brands are pre-eminent (Dell, HP, IBM, Toshiba) but accross the industry as a whole there are still many names out there. The other parallel with the PC is in the add-on market, a plethora of brands doing their best to add value to the basic box, so it is in the camera industry with third parties providing lenses, tripods, bags etc etc etc - There certainly will be a coming together of base technology but economics will always be the driver and as long as there is the opportunity to "build a better mousetrap" someone will.
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