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- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!lib!oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu!jmaynard
- From: jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Subject: Re: FCC will proclaim Microsoft is run by Communists! : )
- Message-ID: <8284@lib.tmc.edu>
- Date: 3 Jan 1993 14:42:19 GMT
- References: <1992Dec30.202102.27980@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <8262@lib.tmc.edu> <1992Dec31.034703.2036@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
- Sender: usenet@lib.tmc.edu
- Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston
- Lines: 29
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- In article <1992Dec31.034703.2036@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> helz@ecn.purdue.edu (Randall A Helzerman) writes:
- >No sole sourcing isn't a vital feature of the technique, but a JIT inventory
- >control agreement between you and a supplier does put a new upstart supplier
- >at a "competitive disadvangage".
-
- Not if it isn't a sole source agreement.
-
- >My point wasn't that Microsoft is practicing
- >JIT, my point (which admittadly was badly worded) was that _if_ a business
- >agrees to have a single source for a component, often the supplier of that
- >component can agree to offer it for a much reduced price, especially in
- >the context of a long-term JIT type of arrangement, because they know that
- >they will have a steady and stable customer. _That_ of agreement between
- >a customer and a supplier is, as you say, "A Good Thing", and shouldn't be
- >made illegal no matter if the supplier is Ace nuts & bolts or Microsoft.
-
- No...sole source agreements are anticompetitive, and as such are Bad Things.
- Suppliers who agree to reduce prices if they're the sole source are trying to
- lock out other suppliers in the same market. There is no legitimate reason for
- a supplier to reduce his prices just because someone agrees not to buy a part
- from anyone else.
-
- The PC operating system arena is an especially bad place for such things
- simply because of MS' monopoly position. They're simply trying to consolidate
- and enforce it with their mandatory per-system license.
- --
- Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
- jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity.
- "Brought to you by the letters O, S, and by the number 2." -- Mike Levis
-