Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile? - Subconscious

Blue-green algae did not win by competing symmetrically with anaerobes. It won by not competing. Photosynthesis was an asymmetric survival strategy. Nothing else did it. The market for sunshine was wide open. The result was a rapid disruption.

There was an additional sociotechnical challenge: the web is a standards-based ecosystem. Standards emerge in retrospect, when a problem space is so well-understood that everyone can agree on how it should work.