Re: Intuit's CEO calls for 'OS neutrality

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

Brett wrote:

>I'm not saying that Intuit SHOULD have dropped other platforms; I'm merely
>stating their argument. From their point of view, once the snowball got
>rolling, it was pointless to resist. To their credit, they at least
>waited until the snowball had lots of momentum. But their argument still
>rings hollow in that some smaller platforms have as many users as the
>IBM PC once did. Folks made money then; why not now?

Maybe because the best way to make money in the software business is to
write Windows software.  Intuit might expect a better ROI for writing
another Windows program than for porting a previous one to a non-Microsoft
OS.

I don't know if the costs of developing a new program from scratch offset
this additional "windows profit" or not.  You can make money porting, but
can you makes as much?  For example, there's a Mac software label whose
entire business seems to be porting other companies' Wintel games to MacOS,
and they seem to be in healthy condition. But that doesn't mean there isn't
even more money to be made writing new Windows games.



--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/)
Cornell University, Field of Biochemistry, 377 Olin Chemistry Lab

Piano, n.  A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor.  It is
operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the
audience.
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