> Steve, MSFT's monopoly is a narrow one
Actually it's a long way from narrow... it's widespread and dominating! Or if you mean that they narrowly acquired a monopoly, I don't agree with that either -- Gates' goal from the beginning was to spread his software to every computer that he could through open licensing. True, it got a lot bigger than he thought it would...
You might mean that Apple could have done the same thing MSFT did by the use of open standards, and that is exactly true. The computing world would be a very different place if Apple had taken the open standards approach as their business was growing rather than the "high right" (i.e. low-volume, high-margin) approach.
If you want to read a very interesting book about this, I recommend "Apple - The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders" by Jim Carlton. Did you know that at one time Apple almost bought Sun? Or that IBM almost bought Apple? Or that Bill Gates, in 1985, sent a secret memo to Apple detailing how they could expand their business through the use of open standards, and Apple deliberately refused his advice?
Randy |
