The first and foremost among these barriers are the extremely high tangible and intangible capital requirements to entry. Often, highly uniquely skilled individuals, specially automated machinery, and extensive investments in robotics and technology are necessary to enter the digital camera industry as a producer. As the industry is also rapidly evolving, companies need to be continuously innovating, and new technology and products need to be constantly introduced to the market in order to both satisfy consumer demands and keep up with other producers in the market. Thus, the potential sunk costs - costs that cannot be recouped if the producer was to move out of the marker - are extremely high, which discourages potential suppliers from entering the market. Furthermore, as the incumbent firms are also extremely large, they usually tend to enjoy significant economies of scale which would have been impossible to achieve under conditions of perfect competition. These scale economies enable the Big Three to produce at extremely low costs, and make it difficult for any possible new firms to compete with them. Moreover, the prevalence of various legal barriers - such as specially patented technology, licenses, and the threat of legal harassment - further discourages suppliers from breaking into the market, and ultimately ensures that the industry remains dominated by the large, well-established companies that are already present there. Thus the oligopoly power of the existing firms remains unchallenged.
This oligopoly power allows firms to dictate and decide product prices in the industry. This is largely due to the low bargaining power of the consumers, which exists as a direct consequence of (usually perceived) differences in product. Unlike in the traditional perfectly competitive model, the goods that suppliers produce are not regarded by consumers as homogenous; rather, they are considered to be highly differentiated, and are thought to have little to no available substitutes.