[grayrest]

Does anybody have a term for the phenomenon where a technology achieves enough critical mass among early adopters for network effects to arise only to have the technology improve as it matures so the late adopters wind up leapfrogging the early adopters?

I see this all the time, a simple example being self check out machines. A chain in Atlanta adopted them in the late 90s (this is from memory, could be later) and they were fairly common in the city in early 2000s. They were awful/clunky to use but 5-6 years later I'm in the middle of nowhere South Carolina and find the process to be comparatively painless on an obviously newly-installed machine. Meanwhile the original technology is still installed/operational in the city.

[anvandare]

I'm not too sure, but it sounds like you mean the law of the handicap of a head start[1], maybe?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_handicap_of_a_head_...

[prostoalex]

Last mover advantage?

Sort of like magnetic strip credit cards in the US vs chip cards in Europe. Or the reasons Eastern European countries have the highest broadband speeds, having never dealt with investments in ISDN and other networks.

[Djehngo]

I am not sure cards are a good example.

In the UK at-least we had magnetic stripe and signature cards everywhere for years and years.

When chip and pin was introduced all the merchants had to get chip and pin terminals and all card holders had to get compatible cards.

[shalmanese]

The Leapfrog effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging

[el_presidente]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whytryharder.jpg

[gwern]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better ?