Microsoft sees Zune effort a long haul

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Monopoly maintenance

I am certainly not a lawyer, but wouldn't a monopoly just be a particular business that commands an overwhelming majority of a particular market? Should it matter whether the company has changed their tactics at any point in their existence?

And a monopoly may not necessarily be a bad thing. A company that offers a high quality product at a very fair price may grow to dominate a market. Is that necessarily a bad thing?

Yes, I do understand the economics, and the potential for harm to consumers--one company, no competition, no reason to hold down prices or improve the product. But in this case, you're talking about 4-5% of overall music purchases, so there's a long way to go before one would expect to see stagnation.

As for who is to blame for the situation, the obvious culprit is the RIAA. Without their demands for DRM, Apple would not have included any such measures in their product. Apple did take advantage of the situation, once that requirement was added in order to license the music, but it's only there at the behest of the RIAA. One wonders if the RIAA dropped all demands for DRM tomorrow, would Apple drop FairPlay or continue to use it to lock in buyers? I have a feeling they'd be forced to drop it as other online stores would sell unencumbered songs and they'd need to compete there. So in essence, the monopoly is maintained by the RIAA, not Apple.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 07/28/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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