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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!shurr
- From: shurr@cbnews.cb.att.com (larry.a.shurr)
- Subject: Re: OS/2 2.1? (Why it may cost) READ THIS!!
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, OH
- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 19:40:56 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Dec16.194056.6445@cbnews.cb.att.com>
- References: <OLAVT.92Dec14003146@ulrik.uio.no> <1992Dec14.175627.4452@unixland.natick.ma.us> <OLAVT.92Dec15012734@ulrik.uio.no>
- Lines: 66
-
- In article <OLAVT.92Dec15012734@ulrik.uio.no> olavt@ulrik.uio.no (Olav Torvund) writes:
- >In article <1992Dec14.175627.4452@unixland.natick.ma.us> bill@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Heiser) writes:
- > olavt@ulrik.uio.no (Olav Torvund) writes:
- > >[Proposed making Windows 3.1 support optional. Envisions adequate
- > >user base to support sales of OS/2 native software and no need for
- > >piggy-backing Windows after 1993].
-
- > [Wonders if this is true. Suggests that OS/2 is an interesting
- > diversion until NT becomes available].
-
- >[Believes OS/2 user base is beyond critical mass, having sold 2Meg in the
- >first 8 months and now gets good press. Proposes that OS/2 must have
- >adequate user and applications base by EOY 1993 or it will have failed].
-
- >And I do not think that many users are really waiting for NT. They are
- >curious, but that does not mean that they will buy it. And for us OS/2
- >users, OS/2 is definitly not an in-between OS on our way to NT.
-
- We're building up quite a tower of speculation based on a modicum of
- fact, but that's OK, it helps make life interesting. I hope we can
- look forward to competition between OS/2 and NT based on merit. Of
- course there are other potential players: Unix Sys V Rel4.2, Solaris,
- NextStep. This could make things more interesting... or more confusing.
-
- As I recall, this thread got started based on an assertion that OS/2
- V2.1 is hung up in a dispute with Microsoft regarding royalty payments
- for Windows 3.1. I do not know if Bill Gates and Microsoft are really
- "competing" via other means than merit and market, but I don't trust
- them to "do the right thing" -- "right" by my values anyway. If so,
- it's a good think that the other party in such a duel is IBM rather
- than Ma & Pa Software, Inc.
-
- I read in InfoWorld that Gates alledgedly said that the royalty pay-
- ments on sales of OS/2 units are more profitable than Windows royal-
- ties so how could he possibly be trying to impeded its sales? Pretty
- disengenous, I'd say. Supposedly, sales of Windows have far exceeded
- those of OS/2 -- though a lot (how many?) of those sales represent
- bundled system packages and may not actually be in use. So, for this
- and other reasons, Windows sales numbers may not accurately represent
- the available market.
-
- Now, as far as I know, the sales of OS/2 represent a large percentage
- of people who deliberately acquired it rather than finding it thrown
- into the deal whether they wanted it not. If a large percentage of 2
- million sales are "deliberate," this represents the beginnings of a
- quite a nice market. Would Bill Gates be willing "engage in anti-
- competitive actions" in order to impede sales in that market? He
- might. The SEC is investigating whether or not Microsoft has engaged
- in illegal anti-competitive actions (some behaviors, depending on
- your values, might be construed to be anti-competitive, but are not
- illegal: e.g., I've heard that Microsoft Press will not fill orders
- for their OS/2 titles; if true, it impedes the usefullness of OS/2 in
- the short run and looks anti-competitive to me, but it's not illegal
- if you just say that they're on backorder... eventually demand will
- melt away).
-
- Man, if I keep up this kind of speculation, I'll have to become a
- know-it-all industry columnist. I think I'll stop and just be a
- programmer instead :-).
-
- Larry
- --
- Larry A. Shurr (las@cbnmva.att.com) speaking only for myself.
- Norman, listen carefully. I am lying. Are you sure your circuits are
- registering? Your ears are green. Logic is a little bird singing in a
- meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad! - Mr. Spock
-