From: Twomey_Mark at domain emc.com
Date: Mon 25 Oct 1999 - 18:37:24 IST
>I'll wait until I'm CEO of the world's largest corporation in
> the most competitive and variable business sector before I
> say that I'm smarter than Bill Gates. ( nobody hold their breath,
Ok )
But he isn't CEO of the worlds largest corporation in the computer
industry (IBM is 10 times MS's size and has nearly 15 times it's resources).
Also it is not the most competitive and variable business sector. Microsoft
only represent a major presence in the Desktop OS (75% of the companies
total revenue and it's had very little real competition in that space. In
total there were only ever 4 real competitors to MS in the OS space in the
industries history. That's not competition that's an invitation to create a
monopoly), and industry Office suite sector. The reason that they are doing
so well in the browser market is that only Mozilla and Opera oppose them.
Netscape have botched Mozilla <I hope to see it ship before the year rolls
out>, and apart from the one built into KDE I've not heard of another GPL'd
browser so we are handing them that market segment on a platter. The fact is
that people allowed MS to create De Facto standards
If it was so competitive, how the hell would MS have had a
hammerlock on the desktop industry for the past 20 years? And if you had
read any of those books you'd realise that Jon Shirley (Ex CEO of the Radio
Shack franchise), built Microsoft. Bill being the be all end all of Hi-Tech
is what PR firm Wagner-Eddstrom want you to believe.
Gates is nothing more than the Colonel Sanders of the computer
industry, a mascot for how cleverer than you they all are. And just like
Sanders he's going to lose control of his particular industry when the
business model flips. Gates is the Windows Tux, fat arsed and with a stupid
smile
There is real competition in the ISP business.
MSN got hammered by AOL.
1.5 million subscribers and falling V's 18Million subscribers and
rising
There is real competition in the mobile computing industry.
WinCE support is being dropped by handheld vendors while Palm &
Symbian represent nearly 85% of the total market and are now moving towards
interoperability in order to complement each others strengths.
There is competition in the server space.
WinNT has about 22% of the market, it fluctuates +/- 2% per
year...that's it.
That is not growth that's stagnation.
Linux has grown to that level in two years and is projected to grow
at 33% increase per year over previous years
There is monster competition in the TV market
Do Americans get their news from MSNBC or CNN?
It's hard to even find a cable service that carries MSNBC in the
states.
There is currently no viable competition in the x86 consumer desktop
space.
Period.
Linux is great for techies but still is not as "comfortable" to
ordinary customers as Win9x is (Comfortable being relative). If you think
otherwise then your not looking at the customer and any business that does
not look at its potential customer base fails, no matter how good it's
technology is.
People gave control of the desktop to Microsoft because they were
not as ameturish as the other canidates, this "smarter-than-though nonsense"
is simply horse-shit.
When given a choice between the no nothing meglomania of Gates, the
Sociopathic manipulation + pure Arrogance of Steve Jobs, the distinct lack
of clarity of Gary Kindell or the dim choices Ray Norrda/IBM/VisiCorp made
no wonder Microsoft climbed to the top.
Cream floats, but so does shite.
>
None of that really matters however as people we are at the end of
growth in the desktop market. Nearly everyone who wants and can afford a
computer has a computer.
Growth is over, no new customers only upgrades to previous
customers.
Have you ever wondered why the hell MS is throwing it's money at any
wacko market idea lately?
It's because they need to continue to grow in order to keep the
stock price healthy, the desktop space is maxed out.
The big new industry....INFORMATION APPLIANCES
> How smart is he ?
> Smart enough that we end up using his products whether we want to
or
> not.
Not true, you still have a choice. Someone wants you to also buy
something else with a purchase, you don't have to buy from them. Chances are
another guy will sell you what you want and how you want it. That's what a
free market economy is all about. If more people practised that methodology
no-one would be paying the Microsoft tax, unless they choose to. By buying
from a vendor who thrust's Windows on you when you don't want it you justify
the vendor doing it to someone else.
Mark.
>
>
>
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