Word Perfect was already on track to this state. In fact, for a long time after MS Word took over the general office, Word Perfect was the standard among lawyers. The lawyer’s clients eventually pushed them into Word.

However, again, it is the complexity of Word that allowed the monopoly. With simpler word processors, it is not so hard to make a product that can compatibly read and write the files of the competitition, even when they try to make the formats proprietary. And people tried this but the program was so complex that there were always little minor things to go wrong (as is the case with open office today). In traditional thinking, the small, brilliant team could not only make a better product than the big company, they could make it compatible so you had no reason not to switch.