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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems

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To: cfimx who wrote (27212)	2/4/2000 7:29:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (2) of 64865

qwik, would you go into business tomorrow with a product that competes with coke or gillete? The answer is no. This statement goes right to the heart of our ongoing debate. It couldn't be summed up better. How can you compare Microsoft to Coke and Gillette? Because they all have the brand, the muscle, the market share, etc.? But this ignores the crucial difference. Beneath the brand, muscle and market share of Coke and Gillette is...nothing. They sell commodities that are absolutely fungible with those of their competitors. They may own patents (like the formula for Coke Classic syrup that you can't tell from Pepsi if you're blindfolded) but the patents are meaningless. The "technology" of soft drinks and razor blades hasn't really changed for a hundred years. These are pure marketing companies. They hypnotize you into buying a package because of its color. That is the entirety of their value add. What's in the package doesn't matter at all. Microsoft is not in that position. They are in an industry where the underlying technology changes so fast that they are forced to buy up little garage startups to keep from having these garage startups do to them what they did to IBM. twister, would you want to go into business with a product that competes against IBM? In 1980 the answer was no. But Bill Gates came up with a third answer: you don't have to. Technology is rendering IBM's products irrelevant. Go with the flow. The flow leads around them. People comfortable with PC's? The PC is a dead man walking and everybody in M$FT upper management knows it (unless they've already cashed out). The network is the computer. --QS

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