The 10mm was developed in 1983, the .40 which shares the same bullet was designed in '90... the first 10mm pistol was the ill-fated Bren-Ten, which was more or less based off of a Cz75, and it actually made an appearance on Miami Vice. The Bren-Tens carry a very high premium due to low numbers of production.
It was designed just for auto loaders to get the higher power of the 357 Magnum in a semiauto. It's also, if you can find one, can be found chambered in a S&W 610 revolver.....which with the advent of the .40, it can easily handle both.
While it's not an overly common cartridge compared to the others like 9mm, 45acp, etc, also having being shadowed by it's highly popular little brother, it does maintain a fairly large fan base and a fairly decent ammo section from mild to wild. With Glock, Colt, EEA, and maybe a few others still developing and making new weapons it's not going away anytime soon. Being fairly high velocity for a handgun with the correct ammo, it can stretch out a good distance as well, as it is a very flat shooting round. I have actually seen the Glock 40 in 10mm used locally for deer hunting.