<mq enjoys providing 'free' capability for me to roam the net while sipping wine on a canal boat meandering in pampered comfort.>
There is some of that in my thinking TJ. While not 'free', as cheap as possible is my kind of thinking, as that gets rid of competition and in the long run maximizes income.
The high-priced Apple approach was nowhere as profitable or useful to people as the MSFT/IBM/Intel system involving vast software theft and cloning of the PC making it cheap enough and useful enough for the hordes, who then went on to buy the things when they could afford it, and opened up the vast new realm of cyberspace which would barely be underway if Apple had remained pre-eminent.
Of course $ill Gates and IBM didn't choose to let people enjoy cheap/free computing. They couldn't stop it. Lucky for them.
Similarly, the high-priced, greedy and self-destructive Globalstar management destroyed $10bn in market capitalisation and left a beautiful communications system to rot in the sky, almost unused.
The zenbu.net.nz and zenbu.co.nz approach is the opposite. It's as cheap as possible so that people can enjoy 'free' services. Or as near to free as possible. That will generate a LOT of usage. I prefer to collect 1c in profit from a billion people than $100 from 10,000. Too many businesses try to go "high end", "upmarket", high margin, short-term high-priced and end up outdone by more 'by the people, for the people' competition.
I always advocated free Globalstar minutes until the system was full up. Only then would subscribers be charged, sufficiently to ensure another call could always be placed, but low enough to ensure it was always running at 90% capacity.
When I investigated the patent position on my idea, I found that Motorola had already patented said idea in 1993 [or displaying the variable price on the handset depending on the loading of a base station]. Globalstar was not interested in the slightest in my marketing ideas and preferred bankruptcy.
I do enjoy seeing people enjoy life and loving a bargain.
I had heard that patents don't run forever [but thanks for pointing that out].
With $10bn in cash, QCOM is starting to look tempting for a tranche or perhaps it's a wallop of my USD which have been sitting for years [foolishly compared with gold, I know but that's what can happen when IRD gets on the case and paralysis sets in]. Take $10bn off the market capitalisation and calculate P:E and it's not all that bad, given the growth rate in profits; various anti-monopoly, licence negotiations, and patent cases notwithstanding.
I'd like to see a bit more market pandemonium though and Big Ben seen to be seriously defending the USD against Aztecs and other barbarians, even in the face of squealing of bankrupt home-owners and whining business borrowers in recessionary circumstances.
Mqurice
PS: TK-san advised today that he got his first $20 into the ZenBu system, albeit to a 'service provider' back-packer accommodation [Matai Lodge] from one subscriber. Yay!! Real money from a real person and the system works fine [in crawling alpha version] |
