If it is so bad, why can't SUNW, ORCL, or IBM produce something better for the average consumer?
Sorry for the length of this answer, Dale, but this old question always disturbs me.
Bill answers this question himself in "The Road Ahead". It's in his "positive feedback" rap about why the VHS VCR beat out the Betamax in the marketplace. It had nothing to do with one being "better" for the consumer. The marketplace needed a single standard. There were two competing standards. Market forces opposed each other. Market dynamics decided the conflict. At some point the forces no longer balanced each other, acceleration happened in one direction, the game was over. It had to do with who was spending how much on marketing, and who was making deals with who, and who didn't want to license technology from who. You go do some scientific analysis Dale and tell me how one method of writing magnetic flux patterns on a tape is better for consumers than the other (in fact the early-80's consensus was that the picture quality of Beta was slightly better, as you may recall). Microsoft didn't get where it is by producing something better.
Not to take anything away from Gates: he parlayed his original good fortune into the greatest monopoly business empire in history through shrewdness, drive, smarts and leadership of his people and, when he had to, hardball tactics that were at times criminal. He did not do it by providing the best products at the best prices for the benefit of consumers. It's not best for consumers to be trained to accept "productivity devices" that crash twice a day, nor to be continually forced to update to ever-more-bloated, ever-more-confusing word processors that are not even backwards compatible with their predecessors. Gates exploited market dynamics such as the unwillingness of computer builders to use software written by other computer builders, and, illegally, his own monopoly, to force box builders and users to take what he handed them. That's his secret, not quality or price.
Gates is a robber baron. America honors robber barons. So, fine. But don't paint him as anybody's benefactor except Microsoft shareholders. For them (including me) he's a benefactor. The "average consumer" has to consume Bill's junk, and not because he likes it. He never really had a choice. Apple could have provided one, but blew it. (That's another story.)
Regards,
--QwikSand |
