However I think friction is a huge deal these days. While email has remained somewhat competitive because of demand, what about something like smartphones?

There is IOS an Android and relatively nothing in between that doesn't require an engineering degree to use. I suppose that's still two competing markets but 99.99999% percent of smart phone users will have to bow to their will. The other .00001% have said engineering degree and fight hard every day and will be forced to withdraw farther an farther from their peers.

Okay, lets say to want to travel to see a friend, you have a stripped down Android phone. What are you options for GPS that actually work, won't leave you stranded and isn't written by Google?

Is it really competition if %99.9999 of users don't have the skills or the dozens of hours to fight against to be able to break out of the walled garden.