Perhaps I should explain that my outlook might seem idiosyncratic - I have
no background in theoretical economic matters, my focus of interest is in
the history of money (especially the denomination structure of coinage
systems) and the history of weight standards.  

Something very like customer lock-in has surely had an enormously pervasive
influence in these areas, as, (as suggested), it has in many others.

Switching cost is not a fully equivalent term, and it seems to me troubling
if no other equivalent term can easily be found in economic theory. 
Troubling in an Orwellian sort of way

Rob Tye, York, UK