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I believe you got out of MSFT earlier this month, and I have been it only intermittantly,(mainly as a trader) this year. In addition to the DOJ affair, I have a feeling that the computer market is gradually moving away from being PC centric, into territory where MSFT doesn't dominate. I have 4 active computers ranging from P100 to P400, and at this point what I really want in a computer is one that works all the time, one that I can load with some new software without screwing up something already on the computer, and one with fast internet access. I have a Gateway P200, but when I installed a tape backup, the sound card stopped working. I spent 2 hours on the phone trying unsuccessfully to get the problem fixed. This is not a user friendly device. The whole PC industry reminds me of the American auto industry years ago, don't worry about making it right, the dealer can fix the problems. Well, in the auto industry this left a big opening for the Japanese to introduce cars that were simple machines in the beginning, but they almost never broke. In fact they were close to being transportation appliances. If this is starting to happen in the PC industry, I wonder if MSFT has the mindset to cope. The big market is sales to companies, and eventually corporations will realize the important thing isn't the purchase price, but total costs over the period of ownership time. The present paradigm doesn't do too well in this regard, and over the longer run I don't think this will be good for MSFT or INTC. OTOH,MSFT has shown an amazing ability to adapt to changing circumstances in the past. |
