Re: Lowballing and bet hedging

[Paul Rickard <msbc@abctec.com>]

John Bryan wrote:
> 
> Doesn't it strike you as a little odd, a little
> curious, a little inconsistent with the pattern of
> past behavior and known temperament, for MS to be
> low balling the ballyhoo of W98???

> Doesn't it seem odd that since the main purpose of
> w98 is to tie IE with windows (so that they by default
> are the number one dominant web browser on the planet
> solely by virtue or fault of commanding 90% of that
> market, and thereby can dictate what software is
> needed to access the Internet, thereby leveraging
> their monopoly of the desktop to the Internet),
> that they would then not even be fanning the flames
> of the great hype machine just a little bit???

        Windows 98 is 2 things: IE4 with a bunch of bug patches and
extra
drivers, plus a bridge between Windows 98 and NT6. Win98 will be the
last year-number windows version, the next one will be NT6. NT5 comes
out this time next year, Microsoft is going to save their money to
promote the crap out of it.

> Here it is less than 3 months away, less than 90 days,
> from the first major release of windows since September
> of 1995, almost 3 years ago, and we have not heard so
> much as a peep from the Microsoft Marketing Hype Machine?

        I've heard some peeps, altho by no means not as loud as we heard
in
April 3 years ago....

> Granted there have been a few ads here and there, but
> compared to what their goals are, and compared to what
> the reason for this release is, and compared to what
> their past behavior and known temperament is, what we
> have seen so far is virtually nil.

        The reason for their release is to bridge the space between
Windows 95
and NT6. 98 is like a major upgrade to Windows 95 more than a redone OS.
They want to keep attention on NT4 and the upcoming NT5. NT is the big
moneymaker, Windows 95/98 don't actually make near as much money, they
just have more users.

> Might it be that by low balling this release, they are
> pre-emptively hedging their bet for the possibility
> that the DOJ stops them before they release it?

        I think the lowball was planned to some extent before the DOJ
problem
came up. It just made it more necessary to underpromote the product.

-- 
===== Paul Rickard, President of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign. =======
------------------------------ <www.abctec.com/~msbc> ------------------
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