>The more publicity....the more the Amer public wants. And for all I know the people abroad have the same perverse attitude!
This is true, Win98 is getting a huge amount of free publicity thanks to the lawsuits. And there will also be another unintended side effect that Microsoft's competitors should probably have thought about. I am quoting below from an essay you can find at frontsys.com on the politicization of the software industry. Over the long run Microsoft, as the company with the deepest pockets, will end up being the company that benefits the most from such a process.
--Carlos
Who among us will have the most influence?
And who can afford the most influence? Which company is responding to the pressure brought upon it by drastically stepping up its lobbying efforts and political contributions? Microsoft, of course. Bill Gates is no dummy, and he's said it quite explicitly: He used to think that all he had to do was design and build great products. Now he realizes that that attitude was "naive." The folks who hate Microsoft, the 800-pound gorilla in a relatively free market, should be worrying about the future Microsoft, the gorilla with so much political influence -- so many senators and congressmen in its back pocket -- that it's practically untouchable. No, this won't happen next month or next quarter -- but what about four years from now, given our politics today?
We've worried about the market power of a few companies like Microsoft, but we haven't anticipated how the true coercive power of government might be used for or against us. After all, you don't have to buy Windows 98, and many people won't. But you do have to pay your taxes, or go to jail -- to finance things like the federal Market Promotion Program, which pays for McDonald's hamburger ads overseas today, and -- who knows? -- might pay for Microsoft's browser ads overseas tomorrow. |
