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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TTOSBT who wrote (45350)	5/25/2000 6:27:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74651

If they had crummy products and someone else had better products, then M$FT would sooner or later be out of business. M$FT made sure that their products were "good enough" to sell. That means they made sure that their competitor's products didn't work as well with their O/S as theirs did. When they couldn't do that w/software they tried exclusionary contracts. You know, this "easier to use" and "more convenient" argument are interesting. They play right into the hands of what Gates has always tried to do: make slick front-ends and forget software architecture/infrastructure. I think there are 2 reasons for that: 1. He thinks he knows a lot more about digital technology than he really does, so his relative ignorance drives the product designs and 2. He knows that it's easier to sell something that looks good to the eye, compared to something that may be highly functional but ugly. It makes sense, then for him to believe that if he supports really whizzy graphical front-ends and stuffs a million- and-one features into the app, that that constitutes an "improvement" that "benefits the consumer". If it just so happens that the app has a high failure rate, mungs data going to & from the disk drive, or is susceptible to the latest-and-greatest virus written by a 16-year old wise-guy, well that's not really what's important, because the product HAS been improved. Think of it like this: if GMC or Ford built a GREAT looking car with all kinds of luxo add-ons, but they ignored small, insignificant details like making sure the syncro-mesh was reliable for >100,000 miles and the engine maintained its compression for more than 5 years, just how well would this car sell???? Would YOU want one???