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- Xref: sparky comp.os.os2.advocacy:11265 comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:3563
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!bdubbs
- From: bdubbs@cs.tamu.edu (Bruce Dubbs)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
- Subject: Re: Is Microsoft the next Standard Oil?
- Date: 31 Dec 1992 06:36:33 GMT
- Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
- Lines: 29
- Message-ID: <1hu4dhINN272@tamsun.tamu.edu>
- References: <1992Dec29.194407.13490@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <1hqe98INNsef@tamsun.tamu.edu> <1992Dec31.034930.3422@microsoft.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: solar.tamu.edu
-
- In article <1992Dec31.034930.3422@microsoft.com> philipla@microsoft.com (Phil Lafornara) writes:
- |In article <1hqe98INNsef@tamsun.tamu.edu> bdubbs@cs.tamu.edu (Bruce Dubbs) writes:
- |>
- |>Actually, I wasn't talking about Standard Oil, I was talking about MS.
- |>The cost of duplicating software is negligible. The cost of
- |>developing is high. If one company has deep pockets and no controls,
- |>the potential exists for that company to dump the product (software) for a
- |>period of time until the competitor goes out of business and then
- |>raise the prices again.
- |>
- |>Has MS done this? You bet. How much was OS/2 1.0? Answer: $325.
- |>Why so much? No competition. How much was the original OS/2 PDK?
- |>Answer: $2600. Same reason. Did IBM go along? Yup. They were
- |>partners, not competitors then.
- |
- | OK, I give up. Which of the examples above is an example
- |of the underpricing you describe in your first paragraph?
- |
-
- Come on Phil. You know better than that. Are you saying that if
- OS/2, NextStep, etc goes away through superior marketing (or other
- tactics) that MS will not raise the prices?
-
- I was describing what DID happen without effective competition. And
- what I feel will happen again without ongoing competition.
- --
- Bruce Dubbs | Oxymorons of note:
- bdubbs@neuron.tamu.edu | Honest Politician, Political Science,
- | Scrupulous Lawyer
-