... I would argue that isn't what the market is focusing on. You guys are languishing in an argument that doesn't exist here. If it did, you would be on the winning side. The question was about why calibers fail to gain and keep market share.....
New handgun cartridges fail because:
(1) They can't gain any traction. Groups of casual shooters talk about their guns which are chambered in the historically popular group of cartridges (9mm, .45 ACP, .38 Spcl, etc) and when a guy in the group wants to get a new gun, he wants to be cool/popular so he buys something like his buddies have. People that frequent message boards like this are probably less than 2% of the gun buyers' market. The sellers' market caters to those other 98%. The masses in the buyers' market aren't going to buy "new-fangled stuff." They are "going to go with what works, darn it."
(2) The majority of handguns are marketed as self-defense weapons of some capacity, and new handgun cartridges don't do anything dramatically new/different. New cartridges will launch a projectile at less than 1400 fps and the bullet won't create a permanent wound channel in a human body--just the same as all the already existing cartridges. So anything new is not "better." Since they are not better, they don't gain any traction with the 2% of the gun community who might consider something new, or with the 98% who are resistant to change from what already works (discussed in Point #1, supra). As a fringe, new cartridge fails to gain popularity, it becomes expensive--both the guns and the ammo. Then, it's eventual slide to obscurity is all but guaranteed.
That's my two cents; I'm sure I'll get change back.
