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(Microsoft was dominant for 1-2 decades.)

I think it's more likely we'll see at least another 5-10 years of dominance of the "Frightful 5".

And IBM was dominant for at least 50 years ;-)

People expected the same for Nokia.

Exactly; it's really a sign of times when "much of the last half-decade" is considered significant when judging who owns a market.

Two years? I was just wondering if that article was two years old..

What about Samsung, Foxconn, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com

How dominant are the frightful 5 outside of North America and Western Europe today?

Without good patent reform they can pretty much stymie any true threat. Then when the threat is mitigated they can snap up the technology increasing their buffer.

Doubt it.

These companies are going to be around a while.