[What competition does Microsoft permit on Wintel boxes? Just who is the competition? I keep forgetting.]
And very conveniently forgetting at that. You define the market as "Wintel" (Windows on Intel), then claim non-competition because MSFT fills the demand for their own systems. What twisted nonsense.
In the PC market, the answer includes OS/2 (by that company with 10 times MSFTs revenues) and Linux (that product cheaper than MSFT could ever afford to offer). But, of course, those doesn't count as competition or choice because that doesn't fit your argument.
Now, let's look at what competition SUNW allows on their hardware or AAPL allows on theirs. None, zero, zilch. Each has a total monopoly on their system's hardware. Explain why the PC platform, the one NOT controlled by a single company, deserves special government attention.
If Java was as good as SUNW claims it is, it would be flying off the shelves, but you know what? It's not. If IBM supported external software developers like MSFT does there would be more applications for OS/2, but you know what? They don't. If AAPL allowed clone makers to build Mac hardware the cost to consumers would plummet, but what did they do? They pulled the cloner's licenses.
MSFT is being attacked because they are winning and nothing more. Their business practices are as clean or better as their competitors. The US government is now in the business of subsidizing losers at the expense of producers and consumers. The wishy washy arguments the DOJ is using could be applied to *any* successful company, and that is what is truly frightening. |
