RE: Intuit's CEO calls for 'OS neutrality

["P.A. Petricone" <pap@tiac.net>]

On Thursday, December 31, 1998 12:20 PM, Mitch Stone wrote:

> --- 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
>
>

What are you trying to portray? None of these or the other observations 
assessing their character, fact or fiction, change their subordinate 
relationship to the power of the platform. It is the nature of that kind of 
relationship that is being examined to see if there is an excess that 
constitutes harm and how best to remedy it, even if it may well not favor 
your choice of platform. Is this not the first order of business?

I have a very different view of Intuit's history of meeting expectations of 
the market based on considerable involvement with the evolution of both 
companies' offerings. I would only be able to speculate what their 
priorities have had to be to maintain a high level of quality in the 
personal bean counting venue on MS or any other platform, where there are 
and have been MANY less attractive offerings for the individual or small 
(pico) business.

It is becoming apparent that Brett's sense of anguish over the demise of 
the small ISV (Intuit was started on a kitchen table) for the variety of 
reasons that he has often, sometimes tersely, expressed, could well be a 
noteworthy signal deserving more careful examination than it is getting 
from the editors.

Perhaps Simon is not too far off, as well.


-pap