Well, Gates would have to at least believe he is a monopolist, or even believe that he might be a monopolist.
The fact is, everyone knows that Microsoft has a monopoly. If the Win32 API isn't a monopoly, I truly shudder at the prospect of ever coming across a real monopoly.
Also, in thinking about the "price inelasticity = market power" argument, I recall from Econ 1 that, in the long run, the price elasticity of goods increases, for both supply and demand. That is for the simple reason that, as time passes, people have more time to come up with cost-effective substitutes, or altermnative sources, for the good in question.
That general statement would assume that there isn't a monopolistic company using its monopoly power to prevent the cost-effective substitutes from reaching the market, right? |
