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

To: Phil Melemed who wrote (10011)	8/7/1998 1:52:00 PM
From: Hal Rubel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Caving-In to Folding-In and The American Way I feel threatened by Microsoft. I am especially alarmed by the failure of regulators to grasp the implications of Microsoft's actions and arguments. Using Microsoft products and owning Microsoft shares has not helped me overcome my concerns. Apparently, I am not entirely alone. It seems to me that Microsoft has a unique advantage in the market place. This advantage seems less and less related to any kind of product superiority and increasingly related to the mere advantages of size. As Microsoft's momentum in the market place builds, I see Microsoft beginning to beg the question of the limits to folding-in all program functionality into what began as just an operating system for those programs. It seems that the only programs being folded-in are Microsoft's own products, with all competitor's products being increasingly frozen out and off the platform to die quietly. How absurd is it to suppose that eventually, programs will be folded in to the Microsoft OS that give Microsoft unearned and undeserved monopolies in unrelated areas? Is this the American Way? Hal

To: Phil Melemed who wrote (10011)	8/7/1998 1:57:00 PM
From: Mike Milde	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

That's a lot to think about, but here's a simple response: There is no one car manufacturer that can control the radio industry and the roads. If GM owned the roads and the radio stations, then you'd see abuse there also. All cars drive on all roads, and that's why car companies cannot lock users into their products, because its easy to move to a competitor's product. It is not easy to move to a competitor's web browser if you are given Windows 98. In fact, Microsoft will tell you it isn't even possible with Windows 98. After all, the web browser in Windows 98 is an integral part of the OS. The OS doesn't function without it. And if you control the web browser, then you eventually will control the road. No one will argue with that. Look at how Yahoo!'s stock has been flying. Everyone wants to control the "portal", whether its the browser, the search engine, etc. People very badly want to try and own the toll road of the future. The rewards are obvious: If you want users to flock to your content, well, you gotta pay me first, one way or another. Mike