Microsoft's Bill Gates: Software's Hard-Liner wp2.washingtonpost.com
"That's the most . . ." He catches himself, but according to a colleague he was about to utter the classic Gates put-down: "That's the most random thing I've ever heard."
Maybe, but I detect a certain randomness to this interview myself.
If you had to pick a part of the economy [about which you] could say, hey, this part is working well, you'd have to pick software and the way software prices have come down," Gates said, rocking back and forth on his office sofa.
Well, I've noticed the price of PC's going down, when there's competition, but I haven't exactly noticed the price of Windows going down.
"It turns out that in capitalism, firms actually pick what products they do and what features to put in those products without the government helping them to decide how to do that," he said.
Detroit would be interested to hear how that nice little lecture applies to them, Bill. It's a mixed economy, unfair though that may seem.
That attitude starts at the top. The key to Microsoft's success is no secret, Gates asserted: "It's because we're focused on software. That's why we're successful. Was there a software industry before we came along? No. Did it make any sense that a company could independently write an operating system when we did it? No.
And did the operating system you wrote make any sense? Rhetorical question, never mind...
. . . And do we [still] think that there's quite a variety of software that's useful to write? Yes."
And bundle into the OS if that's the only way to maintain that all important proprietary lock, eh Bill? Already got that speech and natural language stuff staked out, though Microsoft doesn't seem to have any visible products at the moment.
"Now you could say, why don't I freeze the operating system and not ever put a graphical interface in? Wouldn't that be more fun for the competitors?" Gates said. "And, yes, if the goal is -- at the cost of innovation -- to help competitors, yes, there's lots of ways to rig the game."
Lots of ways to rig the game when you got a monopoly, too.
Economists worry about monopolies for a simple reason. When a company has a lock on a market, it usually turns lazy and complacent. Eventually, the monopolist introduces fewer innovations and raises prices, largely because it doesn't worry that such changes will cost it many customers.
The Bill theory of monopoly. Maybe he should look it up in Encarta, which says:
From the viewpoint of society, monopoly leads to effects that are less desirable than those resulting from economic competition. In general, monopoly results in a smaller output of goods or services as compared with competition, and also in prices that are often higher than those in competitive industries. Another practice associated with monopoly is price discrimination, which involves charging a different price for the same goods or services to different segments of the same market.
"Monopoly," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Cool, that copyright thing got inserted automagically. Anyway, back to Bill:
Gates dismisses such criticisms. "Why don't I raise the price of Windows? Are you really telling me I'm dumb?"
Hey, I though prices were falling in software. Except for Windows, of course. But, it could be worse. Another Encarta quote:
The thrust toward bigness and monopoly power in key parts of the market (or capitalistic) economy has continued into the 20th century. The reaction to this trend has been different in Europe and in the U.S. In Europe, the tendency has been either to nationalize key industries where competition did not work well, or else to allow big firms to make production and pricing agreements among themselves-that is, to form a cartel-under the watchful eye of the state.
"Monopoly," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Time for a little editing on that Encarta thing. I'm sure it'll be taken care of in due time. Maybe the subscription thing has already handled it.
Cheers, Dan. |
