Winner Take All?

The Eclectecon asks if we are moving away from a "winner takes all" society in which a few large firms dominante a given market for goods or services. My comment: My (non-economist) take on this issue: as technology allows more and more people to become their own publishing house (blogs), video production staff (commoditized consumer electronics plus YouTube), and filters (RSS news aggregators), the idea that any one company should be able to win "all" of a market seems rather ludicrous. Of course, implicit in my argument is the assumption that people will take advantage of the freedoms new technologies afford them. History has shown, of course, that many people do not adopt new technologies, either because they are intimidated by them or don't understand their impact. So, I would hedge my argument: to the extent that a well educated person can take advantage of new technologies to free himself from the dictates of corproate America, corporate America will not be successful at dictating that person's experience. To the extent that a person is either uneducated or unwilling to learn about new technologies and apply them to his personal circumstance, a company will be able to control the market in which the consumer consumes.