<Could forward this reply on to the list, please>
In the case of the word processor market,
the aggressive entry included giving away 450,000 copies
of Word.
Tod
Luc-Etienne Brachotte wrote:
> <copy of a post I just send to the Appraising Microsoft Listmembers>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Re: Microsoft vs Justice Department
> Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 11:19:20 +0100
> From: Luc-Etienne Brachotte <Luc-Etienne.Brachotte@art.alcatel.fr>
> To: am-info@essential.org
> References: <199711060854.DAA15934@mail.clark.net>
>
> Norm wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, 2 Nov 1997 13:55:59 -0500 (EST), Tibor Machan wrote: (extract)
> >
> > > A natural monopolist of this kind [...] is no threat to freedom or to
> > > productivity. Anyone on this list is (largely) at liberty to compete with
> > > Microsoft or Sears (Sears nearly went under from competition a few years
> > > ago).
> >
> >
> > Your arguments are based on the completely *WRONG* assumption that
> > M$ is a "natural monopoly". Are you so naive as to believe that M$ has
> > done nothing but develop great technology??? I'm not trying to be nasty
> > but that's completely laughable, the only thing M$ hasn't done to garnish
> > their current marketshare is produce a better product.
>
> In "Microsoft Secrets",
>
> page 157 : Bill Gates interview
>
> "Standards increase the basic machine that you
> can sell into [the market] ... I really shouldn't say
> this, but in some ways, in an individual product
> category, it leads to a natural monopoly..."
>
> p10 : (the books authors)
> "Microsoft has either created or aggressively entered every major
> PC software mass market with products that are at least "good enough"
> initially to set de facto industry standards"
>
> The books shows later Bill Gates position : he's not interested in selling
> the "best" products but "good enough" products. "good enough" (only) is
> important to him.
>
> p138 : Mike Maples interview
> "If someone thinks we're not after Lotus and after WordPerfect and after
> Borland, they're confused."
>
> On same page a very nice sentence :
>
> "My job is to get a fair share of the software applications, and to me that's
> 100 percent!"
>
> --
> .~~~. ))
> (\__/) .' ) )) Luc-Etienne BRACHOTTE
> /o o \/ .~ AIRIAL
> {o_, \ { 3, Rue Bellini
> / , , ) \ PUTEAUX (France)
> `~ '-' \ } ))
> _( ( )_.' E-mail: Luc-Etienne.Brachotte@art.alcatel.fr
> '---..{____}