Every dog has it's day. Colt is definitely was imaginative enough to put together the RIGHT COMBINATION of innovative parts first for a long and impressive time, from the SAA thru the 1911A1.
Not that Remington was just doin nuffin, or half a dozen others.
Smith kept up with it's conscientious improvments then one day their new company president woke up to some news that he eventually saw would change the handgun world and how it would. He asked in late to the game on the 1954 Army Pistol trials and entered the M39. Colt had their offering, both were based on requirements from Army for a 4" compact alloy frame 9mm SA/DA auto pistol. Army reneged as they always do with pistol contracts yet it was eventually Smith who selling 2 and 3 Gen auto's nationwide replacing not only Colt revolvers but also superceding their own revolver sales.
Colt had nothing to compete. The chain was broken.
When it comes to dominating the gun market, Colt had all the patent rights purchased and banked with the 1911A1, yet by the 1920s there were already improvements to be made, and Browning having to work AROUND his own patents is what created the better gun - The Hipower. It dropped the link, double stacked the magazine, offered SA/DA, and replaced almost everybody's existing service pistol except ours.
Browning wasn't alone as Walther invented the P38 - which is what Smith copied - and Beretta did too, which was what the Army adopted in the 1980's. And what improved both of them is the SIG Block - instead of hiding the locking block channels inside the slide, they just made a chunkier chamber and let it rest against the slide as the locking block.
In the progress of auto pistols arguing Colt vs Smith is very much a question out of date now. SMITH won - Colt dropped the ball and by the late 1980's had nothing, losing the game by non participation. That pic of the rack of 70's era 70's is exactly how they did it - they tried to sell an evolutionary upgrade to their core market who weren't having jack to do with it. Their core market wasn't new PD municipal buyers with a S&W list of shopping features required in the contract.
By the 1990s that list was written buy GLOCK and now the tables were turned. In 2017, that list was rewritting again, but SIG, and now it's their turn. Every time mechanical improvisation creates an new way to do something, the inventions doesn't always sound very effective to traditionalists - because they are the last to give a damn, and why you should never listen to them. What makes SIG the preeminent kool kid on the block? The drop out FCU. What has Glock avoided doing for the last 4 years? Introduced a drop out FCU. GLOCK is now in enviable position of being Colt in 1954, they got nothing for the future. Except lawsuits and we all know losers use lawsuits to cover their lame backside.
Colt vs S&W revolvers is arguing which obsolete revolvers from the 1930s are - ? If anyone approached a gun cabinet and found one of each and both so cheap you could afford both, we know what you would do. BUY BOTH.
Otherwise, it's like someone tag lined here, we mostly argue minutiae. The funny part is that some still don't understand how uninmportant their's is. ; )