A friend shared this with me. Interesting stuff (requires registration, I think). Check out the comments, as well.

The author uses a phrase that I believe determines the outcome of many paths: “good enough”.

MP3 audio is lower audio quality than CDs, but people appreciated the flexibility that MP3 provided over fixed media—and the quality was “good enough”. The same battle of quality vs. cost/convenience is waging with monitors used for diagnosis, lossless vs. lossy image compression, mobile device access, dedicated equipment vs. app on multi-purpose device, etc.