Annual Cost of Microsoft Monopoly: $10 Billion

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft's deals with major PC vendors lock users out from alternative options, such as Linux. A recent whitepaper calculates that the cost to industry of this Microsoft monopoly is $10 billion per year."

Comments

Re:10 Billion? What?

[bc90021]

RTFWP. They figured out what it costs Australia, and they have numbers from Microsoft saying that Australia is 2% of MS's income.

They extrapolate, based on their figure of $200 million in savings, which is 2% of $10 billion.

In reality, in any given year, Microsoft makes $40 billion. Does it really seem ridiculous that 10 of that might be from their monopoly? It seems sensible to me. The WP points out that in buying a computer, that it used to be (ala early - mid 90s) that the hardware was about 85% of the cost, and the software 15%. Now, hardware costs have plummeted, whereas software prices have gone up. Now when you buy a computer, about 65% of the price is hardware, and 35% is software. Good points, if you ask me.

Re:Blatant Example of Microsoft Monopoly

[NatteringNabob]

HP pulls the same crap. If you look at their otherwise very nice dual Opterona machines, they have one version with WinXP Pro that is $3499. The closest Linux version, with the HP Linux installer kit is $3799. Note that these machines do not come with Linux pre-installe,d they come with the HP 'linux installer kit' so it doesn't cost HP any more to produce these machines. In addition, these machines are specifically targeted at the Workstation market, not the Office PC market, so Linux would be a natural fit in this market. But some mysterious force prevents HP from selling the equivalent machine at a lower price with no OS. It is pretty darn obvious that the DOJ should have required that Microsoft's OEM agreements should always allow distributors to sell machines without Windows discounted by the cost of Windows. Instead, after a successful anti-trust prosecution, we get the same old slimy, probably illegal tactics that we have always seen from Microsoft. Thanks, W!

Re:Blatant Example of Microsoft Monopoly

[man_of_mr_e]

Actually, it's not as insidious as you might think. Notice that the Dell with XP also has a bunch of other software, like AOL, Wordperfect, etc..

AOL actually pays Dell a fee to include their software, as do the other companies that Dell provides "trial" software for (JASC and others, for instance). This allows them to sell the PC at a lower cost.

Also note that the regular price for the PC is $349, and the $299 price is a special.