Paul,
Judging by Microsoft's stock price/action, most investors seem to be "laughing" at the anti-MSFT consortium.
Well it is laughable. I mean really, what has MS done that is so wrong.. so far they have a free browser, free internet chat utility, free (albeit limited) page editor, free e-mail client and now a free e-mail service.. what is bad for the consumer there.
For some reason some people think MS wants to have no competition.. that's not true.. if MS had no competition their products would suffer.. why??? becuase the drive at MS comes from wanting to bury the competition. Whether it's moral or not I won't/can't say, but is it a good business practice.. damn straight it is.
Bill Gates (I man who I truly admire) does not like anything less than the best he can have.. (witness his house!).. He has instilled that attitude into Microsoft. I would have used Intel as a reference too, but I can't at the momement (while Celeron ships.. I still don't understand Celeron.. why not stick a PMMX on a slot 1 and put the cache control on the card??????????? actually if you could answer that I would appreciate it). But this isn't really about Intel is it?
I guess Wall Street loves a money making machine - more so than a friend-making machine. Microsoft is making a lot of the former and little of the latter.
True. (the first part anyway). MS is making a lot of friends, just a lot of friends in different industries. Cables companies and long distance carriers and internet bandwidth providers.. MS is branching into communication now.
It is interesting that we got into this topic, because it is a favorite with myself and some of my friends who follow the industry. Our conclusion is simple:
You can't compete with MS, _BUT_ you can run along side.
Many companies have made a lot of $$$ more $$$ in fact than companies have lost to MS. So in the balance it's fair. If I start making too much money, MS will come and try and buy me out. Hey great, money for nothing......
If I don't sell _THEN_ they will compete, and it's like with saddam... he knew what he was getting into, even if his troops didn't..
Steve
Cyrix/NSM Rule! |
