The network effect is extremely important and there are examples were better technologies lost to the competition because of the latter's network effect.
In addition, being the oldest running crypto-currency and with the larger market cap means that it was consistently attacked for years; it is the most battle tested and the safest in terms of technical hacking. It also has the largest processing power which means that a majority attack (51%) is not really feasible, incentive-wise.
Most altcoins (there are ~700 right now) have nothing new to offer. Some, however, do add new features. They have (maybe debatable) technological advantages over Bitcoin:
- Dash and the master-node layer with their innovative governance model
- Ethereum which allows complex smart contracts to be easily created
- Maidsafe, NXT, BitShares, ...
It is not easy to compare one on one these coins but Bitcoin is in no way superior technically speaking (and some times it can easily be considered worse!).
Technically speaking most innovations happen in altcoins since it is both:
- easier -- they don't have to support compatibility with the large infrastructure that Bitcoin has nor convince so many people for a change
- and safer -- not so much money at stake
Having said that, the altcoin experimentation have greatest risks, could lead to new unexpected attacks and so on. Bitcoin learns from altcoins and can implement some of the features (some cannot without overhauling the system) in the future if they prove successful without risking much.
