Re: Intuit's CEO calls for 'OS neutrality

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

--- From a message sent by Brett Glass on 12/30/98 10:15 PM ---

>Actually, according to his testimony, he apparently thinks 
>it's more a matter of S-U-R-V-I-V-A-L. Note that Intuit DID 
>support other platforms (DOS and Mac, at least), but 
>eventually felt (correctly or not) that it couldn't keep
>doing this. Here's the CEO's rationale in his own words 
>(Thank Heaven for Caere OmniPage, which read it perfectly
>out of Acrobat.)

Then his words betray him. If Windows products produce 95% of the 
company's revenue, then this is hardly surprising -- it's a figure 
roughly proportional to the Windows market share. Reading between the 
lines, you'll find the Intuit changed its mind about Quicken for the Mac 
after Mr. Campbell had a bit of a chat with Mr. Jobs. You can bet dollars 
changed hands. It was extortion -- um, business. 

Secondly, you've got to ask yourself if the people running Intuit aren't 
expressing a serious lack of imagination if they unable manage a profit 
selling a virtual monopoly product to an audience numbering in the tens 
of millions.

Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net