I think the point is that due to network effects the winner actively holds back the losers, so you can't extrapolate from what happened in a world where Skype won to another world where they didn't. It would have been better for everyone if the winner had been an open standard and a very small change could have accelerated that solution to ubiquity rather than Skype, in the same timeframe.
Out of curiosity, another industry where this (the small change accelerating an open standard such that there are more winners [a higher tide overall]) is what happened? I'm not saying there aren't any--honest question.
