Interesting ponderings on the existence of Microsoft

Discussion in 'Business & Economics' started by vodooeconomist, Jul 5, 2004.

  1. vodooeconomist Registered Member

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    I have been thinking lately: "What exactly is Microsoft?"

    By all definitions, Microsoft seems to be a monopoly. It has the majority market share of several different computing markets. But here is the interesting thing: its competitors seem to exist as an oligopoly.

    Take the operating system market for example. M$ holds something like 94% of the operating system market with its various O/Ss. But then, all of the competitors (Sun, Apple, Linux, etc...) seem to be equally sized, making up the other roughly 6% of the O/S market.

    So what is this wierd bastard market called? Can it even exist? Can a monopoly and oligopoly both coexist in the same market?
     
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  3. kmguru Staff Member

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    The status quo might change in the next five years if:

    Apple ports its OS to AMD 64bit dual processors...

    Sun makes Solaris a cool graphic OS for common people

    IBM takes Linux to the next level desktop (with their past history - may not work)
     
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  5. Alpha «Visitor» Registered Senior Member

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    Note, linux is not really part of the market share. Linux is free. OK, redhat is an exception, but my point is, there's a lot more computers using linux than the claimed stats. The very methods of collecting such stats are flawed. What about computers that dual/multi boot, etc.?
    Also note, the software market is inherently different from regular markets. One can make copies at no cost, pirating can actually increase profit, etc. Old business models based on regular markets are thus flawed from inception. Bill Gates has admitted is business model is flawed and wished he did things differently. Oh well, he was mighty successful with the one he used.
     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    (Does a lack of a title make this titless?)

    Did Gates go into detail about those regrets? What occurs to me is that one of Microsoft's most sinister contributions, and perhaps the one I hold most severely against them, is that they were the driving force behind a change in commerce. Alpha correctly notes that the software market is inherently different from regular markets. The success Bill Gates has had with the MS model has to do with money--everything is about money. The product only exists as a way to get money. What would the Sistine Chapel be if Michelangelo only cared about getting paid? And in a similar economy to the "Microsoft economy," Mondrian would have done it because it's inherently cheaper, seemingly more superficial, simpler on the eye, and cheerfully-colored.

    For instance--Apple. One of the reasons Apple is reluctant to include other chips is because it will create variations in product quality. What are Apple's product embarrassments? (The latest iMac rollout snafu notwithstanding.) Well, there was Lisa, but we don't need to go back that far:

    • "Exploding TiBooks"
    • iMac video board production fault
    • Lucite casing on The Cube
    • No cheap microphone jack on sunflower iMac
    • History of underpowered video cards

    One of the things they don't have problems with is the infinite frustration of having to tinker with a custom-built PC; applications don't run right, displays don't run right, drivers downloads, &c. And while Apple does suffer a similar proprietary lack of interchangability--it's a pain in the ass to boost the video card in this thing, as it's onboard--to various popular PC brands (Compaq, for instance, likes onboard video cards) part of the point of buying an Apple and using its OS is that it's designed to literally come out of the box, plug into the wall, and go. The only thing that slows you down is how fast you plug it in.

    Software issues? Laughably, people were complaining that Apple was having problems rendering web pages. Well ... neither iCab nor OmniWeb nor Opera nor Netscape nor anyone followed the Native Event Model in designing and executing their browsers; IE is a mere dysfunctional port, long-hailed as the only compliant Mac browser but otherwise a crappy user experience. So now we get to go through it with Safari, and it's nice watching the thing get more and more solid as time goes by.

    But even if Apple managed to double their marketshare, which still wouldn't equal that many users compared to Microsoft, Steve Jobs would face lowered customer satisfaction as a result of greater user diversity, and if they rush to accommodate that problem, they can become just as spotty as using a Windows machine. If marketshare doubles, tech support costs will go up fourfold at least. As it is, most Mac owners I know can figure very basic things about their computer that, compared to Apple's current marketshare, a significant number of Windows users cannot. An email I sent to a friend once got posted at his office as an example of what they wanted from users; quite simply I was having a problem with something we'd been tinkering with the night before, so I emailed him at his job (tech support) and made a tongue-in-cheek list of everything I had actually done (check memory settings, restart, check OS9 extensions, &c) that, to the minds of the techsters at his office, made their jobs easy. Because the first question they have to ask is, "Is the computer plugged in and turned on?" In the end, I went to my wall until "reinstall" was my only option, and then sent the email. I got a reply ten minutes later--don't reinstall. Go to this link and download this file and replace it in this directory.

    What does this say about Apple users? Nothing inherently. But just as Mac users learn to navigate with one hand on the keyboard (one-button mouse style) and update their system regularly (alarms and reminders help), so do they learn to go through certain processes when they can.

    My friend described his two biggest problems in tech support as developers (already stressed, off-rhythm, and seeing their productivity brought to a halt, some could be exceptionally problematic) and video gamers (games merely ported to Carbon could be problematic, and made up the bulk of the calls he got)--for various reasons speculative and otherwise unbeknownst, those were the folks he had to go through the annoying part, "Is your computer turned on? Is the CD in the drive? Well, this application requires that the CD be in the drive. If you launch the game, it should stop and show you a window asking for the CD." And those folks had to be told about their extensions, memory settings ... and it while the developers had an answer ("Well, that's what I'm working on, dude!") he had to give an unusual amount of--"Well, why did you tamper with that file?" As one particular person gave him grief about the superiority of PC's, he got to ask, "Well, would you go into your system directory on a PC and start deleting and renaming and moving files at random?"

    The point is that Apple, by proxy of its marketshare, is spared a fair amount of this sort of grief. And even the few percentage points that represent doubling its marketshare will devastate that comfort and bring fire from the heavens.

    To bring it round full circle--Microsoft didn't care about these sorts of things. Their eyes have been on the money the whole time. Microsoft does what it does very well--it takes other people's innovations, generalizes (and thereby weakens) them, and sells them at a cut rate. It's a good business inasmuch as profits are concerned, but it sets a second-rate standard for the industry.

    So perhaps it's obvious, but I'm curious about Gates' regrets, which could better advise and thus reshape my impression of The Story So Far.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2004
  8. kmguru Staff Member

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    11,757
  9. kmguru Staff Member

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    11,757
    On Sun...

    Sun may put Java server on open-source table
    Sun says it is considering an open-source model for its Java Enterprise System.
    Thu Jul 15 12:29:00 PDT 2004 | Read Full Story
     
  10. Mystech Adult Supervision Required Registered Senior Member

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    No one ever got rich by not getting paid.
     
  11. kmguru Staff Member

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    Tell than to those Linux developers...they think they will get rich by osmosis?....

    Actually pirating helps this way....

    Those who pirate the software are the same people who get it for their personal use to learn. Once learned and used in a very large group allows the product to grow and mature and the same people buy for the company.

    Highly successful software products are also the same products that are easy to pirate. Products that are not available and not easy to learn do not sell very well or have to use a lot of marketing money to be successful.
     

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