This cannot be understated. Different company and a smaller niche, but proprietary file formats have plagued the GIS industry for decades. The most widely used format (shapefile) is about as terrible as it gets as far as functionality goes, but it is used everywhere. There has been a mounting effort to persuade governments to use open formats for publishing data, but it has been slow going.
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It also cemented their file formats as the industry standard. The network effect is still strong even today.
This cannot be understated. Different company and a smaller niche, but proprietary file formats have plagued the GIS industry for decades. The most widely used format (shapefile) is about as terrible as it gets as far as functionality goes, but it is used everywhere. There has been a mounting effort to persuade governments to use open formats for publishing data, but it has been slow going.