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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (20636)	6/12/2000 11:15:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

>>I saw my first transistor radio in the late 1960s, it was a Sony. You're a decade late - at least for those with indoor plumbing. The more things change, the more you stay the same.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (20636)	6/12/2000 11:18:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

You really were in the boondocks, then, transistor radios were ubiquitous in major urban areas at least by '65. Anyway, the Japanese made the decision to specialize in low cost consumer goods for export, and transistor radios were one of their favorite items. They were much cheaper than American radios, both in the financial sense, and in the sense of being very close to toys.......... I agree that competition is generally good, of course. Competition comes in different forms, though. Even if AT&T had a monopoly on phone service, they did not have a monopoly on research and development, which was a major source of revenue. Thus, they were not free of pressure in all departments of interest. Also, just as film and movies and live entertainment all implicitly compete for the "entertainment dollar", so long distance service competed with the US Mail and the telegraph office. Similarly with Microsoft: it continues to compete with Linux and Netscape for major parts of the software business, and is successful at doing it. But more generally, if they do not continue to improve interface and make computers more user friendly, the penetration of the potential market will stall. Most people use their computers for gaming, for example, so computers are in competition with Nintendo, which is easier to use, cheaper, and more stable. Computers are competing with Web TV and wireless Internet access. But more than that, they are competing with conventional sources of entertainment, news, and convenience shopping (catalogues, shopping networks, 800 numbers). Of course computers will be favored in the workplace, but there is virtually complete penetration there, and without business app upgrades the software market would be stalled. To put it bluntly, there already was enormous pressure for Microsoft to innovate or see its revenue stream, PE ratio, and stock value plummet. I read that it would take over 40 billion dollars to effect the break up of Microsoft. That will be spent on lawyers, new building, and paperwork, presumably. Would it be better spent on actual software development?