This paper aims to resume the agricultural machinery history and development, as well as their majors companies, in order to understand the current market structure and the prospects for their future. The first discussion is related to the importance of technical progress to compete in this environment. We study the competition and technical progress in this industry, focusing on technological trajectories and on collecting information from the literature about the development of this industry. The study concludes that the industry retains some differentiated oligopoly characteristics, with innovation and product differentiation as important competitive tools. Another key aspect is the global nature of this competition.