Making customers miserable the Microsoft way

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Microsoft's innovation

You wrote:
Oh, he adopted others ideas and called it
innovation. In truth there isn't much original
thats ever come out of MS which isn't entirely a
bad thing. Not a good thing either when it is
presented as something original though.

Microsoft 'innovates' when they add something to Windows that wasn't there before. And though the capability may not be new to computers, bet you haven't seen it in an operating system before.


You also said:
Still, Microsoft has managed to make every
mistake a monopolist can make most significantly
raising prices and lowering quality. And they
are focused not on quality but on maintenance of
their monopoly.

Microsoft maintains (not increases) their prices because of the 'innovations' discussed above. Their products do more. Microsoft's biggest competitor is Microsoft. They have to keep beating their own past products in a way that users find to be substantial improvements. Not IT people, but those who think of a computer as a tool to get their work done.

My final quote:
Still what they are facing is something they
have no answer for. Open source is a
significant threat because it works well, not
simply good enough, and because it doesn't fit
in with the notion of profit making. Non
profits never do.

There is no advantage to avoiding profits. In fact it's a disadvantage compared to the capability and continuity that comes with money.
Open Source's advantage is its simplicity, not matching Microsoft. As has been pointed out before, as the dominant product becomes more intricate, it creates room in the market for a simple competitor.

Most users find Microsoft works well enough, and feel relieved for all it does for them. But Open Source does have an available niche, as long as it lasts.
No, IBM is the real Open Source threat to Microsoft. They want to make software less important in order to sell hardware and services. If this weren't so dangerous, Sun and Microsoft would still be slogging out their battles.

Remember, too, that Microsoft sees its potential market as all software. Open Source is primarily aimed at Unix, and is bothering Microsoft by killing off expensive proprietary Unixes before Microsoft can do the job.
Microsoft and Open Source are fighting over a carcass.

Think of Microsoft as still in the expansive phase. They're not interested in fighting off threats; they want to be the threat themselves.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 04/13/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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