Re: A New List!

[dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw]

  Christopher Pall (x97pall@wmich.edu) wrote --
   
  >  The PC computer keyboard industry is a most wonderful demonstration
  >  of how a company doesn't need to sell a single unit to be an
  >  "overpowering monopolistic" force within that sector. Look at your
  >  keyboards, I'll bet most of them have that funny Windows Key.
   
  ...and shortly thereafter wrote --
   
  >  Abuses of MS Monopoly (Past + Present)
  >
  >     * MS's pressuring of keyboard mfg's to add the Windows 95 symbol.
   
  I seriously doubt that any pressure was applied. IBM or Microsoft twitches
  and a thousand clone makers jump, and retool, and flood the market with
  imitations -- and all the new computer users coming on line take it as the
  norm, and most long-time non-technical users never stop to question, say,
  the abandonment of a market-tested layout (tested when the market had a
  clue, that is) or the addition of three keys to an already grossly
  overpopulated keyboard. Examples abound from as far back as the early
  eighties.
   
  Perhaps you have to live in the Far East to fully understand the clone
  makers' mentality. Many have the ability to innovate -- but I've seen a
  Taiwan hardware maker *remove* innovative features from a *bundled*
  software product to bring it in line with a stand-alone program put out by
  a big-name U.S. company.
   
  During a Q&A session following a scanner demo for an expatriates' group in
  Taipei in late 1985, the presenter made a statement to the effect that
  wherever IBM went, his company would follow. Most of the subscribers to
  this list can probably imagine the groans that filled the room. The way he
  said it, though, has long stuck in my mind -- it seemed as though he fully
  expected a round of applause....
   
  Dan Strychalski
  dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw