Basics

A characteristic pattern in the history of technology in which one “dominant design” drives out alternatives that would perform the same function.
To a certain extent is beneficial as it controls Project Creep in development of solutions
On a broader extent however, it makes the "Dominant Design" often the only profitable solution, due to economies of scale, despite sometimes being less efficient / optimal
An example is the usage of lithium ion batteries for stationary power storage
- They are optimized to be lightweight and energy dense
- The lightweight advantage doesn't matter in stationary situations, thus the main advantage is lost
- Due to mass production for mobile electronics, they are cheaper that alternatives, despite many issues such as, Thermal Runaway , not scaling well, hazards in production/decomissioning, and raw material supply
The solution seems to be finding a niche, then expanding from there
- For instance lithium ion batteries started out specifically for handheld electronics, far before being viable for BEVs

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