> Just think about how much, especially in the early days, came out of academia alone.
Academic institutions are hugely monopolistic...
> Where there's lots of competition, the need to innovate is the necessity for survival.
That's the theory. In practice, competition drives bean-counting efficiency. See, e.g., Thinkpads before and after the Lenovo acquisition. Pretty much the only place you see innovation in that space is among companies that can carve out a niche based on brand or differentiating factors (Apple), or among companies that have a monopoly on a key piece of the supply chain (Intel, Microsoft).
IMO, innovation is usually fueled by competition. Where there's lots of competition, the need to innovate is the necessity for survival. I mean, how innovative was Microsoft in the 90's when they essentially had a monopoly on desktop computing? That's how we got stuck with IE 6 for so long...