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Trust issue
OEMs are loyal to MS (too loyal, says me) because MS has been loyal to them (the stick isn't nearly as big as it once was, thanks to antitrust police worldwide). Keyboards and mice are no threat to the OEM channel, but full-blown PCs and servers are. In practice, MS appears to heavily involved in design anyway (witness the PocketPC and MS' continuing efforts to promote tablet PCs), but the OEMs are the ones who sell the product. Thus, there's no harm in producing a reference design for PC manufacturers, as long as MS is not selling its own boxes. It might even result in some extra revenue from book sales.

MS would not be in the dominant position it enjoys today if it hadn't been selling preloaded operating systems to computer manufacturers for all these years. Indeed, I believe that the IBM PC architecture itself would long ago have been abandoned as obsolete, were it not for this practice. For MS to now bypass the OEMs and sell computers directly to the public would be a dangerous strategy and I don't think they'll even consider it. Ultimately, I think it would be a losing one.
Posted by: John L. Ries   Posted on: 09/10/08  (Edited: 09/10/2008 @ 10:49) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Trust issue  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
I mostly agree, except on the loyalty thing. When you have a gun to  DonnieBoy | 09/10/08
MS ability to punish has been limited for a while  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
True, the stick is not as big as it was - Dell IS selling Ubuntu  DonnieBoy | 09/10/08
which proves people  mdemuth | 09/10/08
Well, OSX is not pirated because it is paired with the hardware. But,  DonnieBoy | 09/10/08
Hackintosh  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
This could be one of the stupidest posts here  omdguy | 09/10/08
Inertia  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
"Why isn't OSX pirated? "  bmerc | 09/11/08
Are you sure?  kozmcrae | 09/11/08
Slippery slope  Yagotta B. Kidding | 09/10/08
But we know Intel  Michael Kelly | 09/10/08
AMD may say something different...  deaf_e_kate | 09/11/08
I think that Apple's design is just good design. It is NOT related to the  DonnieBoy | 09/10/08
Apple locks you down  cmdrrickhunter@... | 09/10/08
Pardon???  MacCanuck | 09/10/08
I had to call a Mac user...  jasonp@... | 09/10/08
mac users????!!!  ttremeth | 09/10/08
@ttremeth  eldernorm | 09/10/08
MICE!  Win3.1 | 09/11/08
I cannot be productive on an Apple because the mouse acceleration...  bmerc | 09/11/08
Dude, you're an idiot  omdguy | 09/10/08
Use a Zune?? Do they still make those?? happy  eldernorm | 09/10/08
What's to refute?  bmerc | 09/11/08
Donnie Donnie Donnie  tonymcs@... | 09/10/08
Isn't this moot?  Yagotta B. Kidding | 09/10/08
Just a thought  eldernorm | 09/10/08
PC hardware  John Carroll ZDNet Moderator | 09/11/08
RE: The moral hazard of Microsoft-branded PCs  Wdabrock | 09/10/08
Was Microsoft successful selling pc's it manufactured...  Anton Philidor | 09/10/08
No moral hazard at all  stevey_d | 09/10/08
the 'refrence design' ideea is a stillborn!  Linux Geek | 09/10/08
The computer wars are over?  frgough | 09/10/08
MS troll or just uninformed?? happy  eldernorm | 09/10/08
Yes, Apple Share Is Steadily Increasing  Cardhu | 09/13/08
Your analysis is bass-ackwards  frgough | 09/10/08
I agree  Badgered | 09/10/08
No  mdemuth | 09/10/08
you're partly wrong...  mrdt | 09/11/08
The only problem is...  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
This is exactly what Linux needs to happen.  bjbrock | 09/10/08
RE: The moral hazard of Microsoft-branded PCs  MrMarkov | 09/10/08
Serial Port  Badgered | 09/10/08
Isn't this where the XBox is going?  JB King | 09/10/08
This would be a major reason why...  John L. Ries | 09/10/08
RE: LOL  Bozzer | 09/10/08
Design is not easy  Blad_Rnr | 09/10/08
I'm not saying it is  John Carroll ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/08
Foreign supplier problems  Rick_R | 09/10/08
Walmart...  John Carroll ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/08
Placing the blame  TedKraan | 09/11/08
Can't do it, crapware RE: The moral hazard of Microsoft-branded PCs  ralphrides | 09/11/08
Apple's official profit per machine...  John Carroll ZDNet Moderator | 09/11/08
Wanna try that again? Try being less of a fanboi..  Wolfie2K3 | 09/11/08
You might want to check on that.  kozmcrae | 09/11/08
To what specific immorality are you referring?  ksheppard@... | 09/11/08
Moral Hazard, not immorality...  Komplex | 09/11/08
Thank you, Kx. That leads to another ?  ksheppard@... | 09/11/08
Whatever happened to standards?  ElCondor11 | 09/11/08

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