[True North]

Now this a loaded gun waiting to be fired.

Pro Tools establised itself early on when most of the other players didn't really step up. PT was one of the first systems that didn't rely on Native CPU power to run. Things are a little different today, with the advent of dual cpu machines and multi core CPU's we are beginning to approach acceptable processing power to run a DAW natively.

It just was not an option to run a professional session with a native solutioned DAW rig when hard disk recording first came into play. Because it was a system that was adopted early, many professional AE's learned it and it quickly became the DAW of choice almost by default - they weren't many other viable options at the time. People loved it's editing features and the automation. It's user interface was well designed.

There might be other opinions on this matter, but these are the factors that I think led to it's dominance.

There is no doubt that using almost any other product PT is way more flexible and a better option in many instances. Because PT is still a standard in professional studios, arguments have been made that it is the better choice in commercial studio environments, but that is a whole other can of worms.

Cheers!