Conversation

A good piece of software exists and is enjoyed by many users. It's basically done and development has slowed down, but it nevertheless continues to be useful to its users.

Later, a new piece of software enters the same market to solve the same $task. It has to rewrite everything from zero, which may take years. As they make improvements over the years, each announcement keeps them on top of the news cycle, with each inch they move towards the finish line.

Result:

$newproduct erodes the mindshare from $oldproduct. It has been present at the forefront of the public's minds and quickly gains marketshare, and users who were familiar with $oldproject prior to the introduction of $newproject start to age out of the market.

This happens even if $oldsoftware is free/open-source and $newsoftware is proprietary, if $newsoftware is missing important features of $oldsoftware, if $newsoftware is a gear in the capitalist machine and will eventually spit its chewed up users out when they get sold to the highest bidder, etc.