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Technology Stocks : Microsoft Corp. - Moderated (MSFT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandeep who wrote (10401)	12/8/2005 1:25:40 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 19790

I don't think you understand my points? MP3/itunes vs. WMA, Itunes/MP3 WON. Thats the point. Of course these aren't competing now, because MP3 won. MP3 is like the firefox of media, an open source standard with apple modified for their own standard. A few years ago MSFT wanted WMA to be a contender, it isn't and its over now (for msft). As to IE vs. firefox, come on, its who has the momentum at the time who is winning, not the legacy past. IE is the legacy past. If firefox continues to gain on IE, they are the winner, now. 85% market share for IE vs. what from 5 years ago? 99%? Sound like a winner to you? MSN messenger has not market share. I don't know where you get your numbers, not from Gartner.

To: sandeep who wrote (10401)	12/8/2005 6:59:50 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Respond to of 19790

MP3/itunes? - Microsoft is really not a competitor here. You know they have WMA, not MP3 iTunes killed Windows Media Player. AAC becomes a backdoor standard thanks to the ubiquity of iPods. MSFT lost bigtime there. but more illustrative, i think, is that Apple had a much better approach. they made a media player that didn't suck, then they made a device that didn't suck and was compatible with it. by contrast, MS made a media player program that sucked, and created a standard that was supported by a bunch of crappy MP3 players from different vendors. so, i think Apple had the better strategy here in addition to better execution. in retrospect, MSFT should have gone the exclusive hardware route and poured a lot of money into it like they did w/Xbox. i hope MSFT kills Google; that is one company i would like to short down 90% to a proper valuation. MSFT certainly has the money to do this to GOOG, but do they have the brains. the jury is still out imo. you have to be in deep denial not to recognize Firefox as a success. Passport was also an abysmal failure. they should have called it the "Distrust Microsoft" program. Steve Jobs couldn't have made a better program for his enemies in WA. again, Paypal had the better strategy as well as execution.