Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits have been around for years. Now, they are just getting popular in the water well industry. This is the way of most advances in our industry: The big boys have the money to do the initial research, and then it gets translated to our needs. PDC bits are no different.
At first, they were prohibitively expensive, because the companies that did the original research needed to get their money back. But, after a few years, the free market took over. The bits got into a price range available to all, while design improvements continued.