Brad... When you get over this election obsession you have (only one step above the pathology associated with fetishes), you might consider seriously the type of AG who would be good for IDX. Contrary to popular opinion, Biometricgangboy on Yahoo has a brain, and today he used it to put forth an analysis of what might happen if the Justice Dept. pulled back on the MSFT case. Potentially very serious for IDX. Excerpts (edited) follow. Jean
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It was Randy Fowler who once stated that to IDX, it doesn't matter whose hardware scanners are on the equipment. That it's all in the software. That IDX's software will work with anyone's scanners and that's how the business will grow. I agree. But on the desktop,the one person that would be able to exploit this principle better than anyone -even Randy Fowler- is Bill Gates. And if that District Court ruling against MSFT is significantly reversed, so as to allow
MSFT to operate unregulated, that is to say, to allow MSFT to operate pretty much the way it had always been operating prior to J. Jackson;s ruling, I don't think that result would be too good for IDX.
My educated guess says that right now...MSFT is working on their own biometric software suite. ... In a worst case, yet plausible, scenario, an unfettered MSFT would simply integrate its own biometric software suite onto its OS and
ship it out as the default biometric suite. It won't matter that IDX has OEM's with Dell or Compaq or anyone else. because desktop computing still flows through the OS, and MSFT exerts monopoly power in that space. The OS would be written to establish MSFT's suite as the default biometric system. And if MSFT really wants to resort to its old tricks, the IDX suite -BioLogon- would have all kinds of problems running on the OS -glitches, crashes, shutdowns,
inefficiencies, etc. This would be Fowler's strategy coming back to haunt IDX: It won't matter whose hardware is on the computer.
MSFT's software would work with anyone's scanner. This is
MSFT 's patented power play move, like Kareem's hook shot or Fosbury's flop. This move would probably hit IDX the hardest on the not-even-nascent home user side of the biometric market. Because the market for home users to log onto web sites, and participate in remote banking and financial transactions biometrically does not exist today, one could hardly say that the clock is running out on MSFT. Me personally, I believe that the clock runs out on MSFT much later than it would on other companies. Be careful what you wish for. |
