>>What does this mean? Well, PC hardware companies are getting hurt with pricing pressures. Meanwhile, unit growth in has accelerated. Let's see...which company only cares about unit sales, not ASPs? Microsoft, of course!!! Microsoft gets the same royalty whether the PC sells for $900 or $3900. This is *great* for MSFT.
So once again, I'll reiterate my "Strong Buy" rating on MSFT.<<<
Thanks, Sal. Your argument is pretty convincing, short term. This should be good for programmers and software companies in general. The cheaper PCs and TV/PCs should bring some new demographics to the table, which can stimulate the demand for new kinds of applications.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has no competition in PC OS, so they can hold their price up even if it becomes half the cost of owning a PC. Short term. Longer term, I'm not sure that Windows of any flavor is a sensible OS for PC/TV, and other OS mfrs like Sun/Javasoft, BE, and so on may take a shot at those boxes. Right now they almost all run OS you never heard of (like the small-dish satellite set top box, which some friends of mine wrote the OS for.)
BTW, though, are you sure that MS doesn't scale the cost of the OS to the cost of the box or the volume at all? How does that work?
Chaz |
