I just posted a link to some vid's in Web Dev on Javascript, in the first one is a quick history lesson on the browser wars and it is interesting to see how all companies of the time shot themselves in the foot by try ing to one up each other's technology. It really hobbled inovation and web tech for years and we are still feeling the aches and pains from those days.
More innovation has come from opensource over the last decade than anything proprietary (svn, git, et al for example) but companies need a business plan and software/tech is their 'asset', at least in the beginning.
It's a hard game but I think the big players are seeing more opportunities in support and services than new tech, web app's and mobile is the new driver for new tech I think, locking people into an app ecosystem or product is great short term but long term you'll be run over by a 'service' that does it a lot cheaper and probably better.
