Art, I'm being a bit pedantic here, but OmniTRACS isn't doing well because there's no competition. There is. They are doing well because they have developed a product and service which is much better value for money than any other option.
Which of course means there isn't much competition, in that narrow segment of business, but the way you put it was putting the cart before the horse.
<The only exception is OmniTRACS, which was QUALCOMM's first product, and which continues to be a real money maker because there is almost no competition for the product. (Other products available on the market do only a small part of what OmniTRACS does.)>
Sorry to be picky, but I'm very sensitive to the commonly expressed idea that companies "control" markets or customers and that companies have monopolies. In one sense, every transaction made at any time in any business is a result of an instantaneous monopoly, but in reality, there is no monopoly worthy of the word in nearly all circumstances.
My fear is that QUALCOMM will come to be seen to have a monopoly worthy of government edict and confiscation. It is only a monopoly in a very narrowly defined sense. I dread the day when some idiot says QUALCOMM has a monopoly and controls a market or subscribers.
As the cash flow rises and market share increases, the demands will rise to drag QUALCOMM down into the muck along with the rest of unproductive confiscatory humanity who can't get their own life, find their own customers and invent things that all people want.
Managing the transition to being a $trillion company will be tricky.
A monopoly only exists if one is prepared to create a narrow enough boundary. But envy exists. Greed, stupidity and jealousy too. They are expressed at ballot boxes and in politics, where confiscation, domination and old-style tribal hierarchies still rule the roost. Unfortunately.
Mqurice |
