Let's start with compatibility. It is quite clear today that one of the key advantages of the "Wintel" architecture is the huge investment customers have made in terms of software applications--and training to use them. Switching costs are massive. Therefore, projects such as OS/2 and PowerPC failed to gain real traction, despite arguable technical superiority. The same is true of competing networking standards such as Token Ring and FDDI.
These technologies, while also potentially technically superior, are simply too expensive to implement when you consider total cost of ownership. 802.11b is already being used in more than 50 million devices, and by next year, 50 million more will use it. That is a massive installed base of "free" clients that will represent a significant hurdle for any challenger. Ironically, this hurdle can even be an impediment for other open standards that lack customer momentum. Vendors pushing 802.11a and 802.16 will find this to be a significant challenge.
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Source: ZDnet