Why give up? This is exactly what they want - keep battering for long enough, and cracks will show. A Law Firm here in New Zealand went as far as to lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission regarding Microsoft's new licensing regime. Although the complaint was rejected, the new scheme has so incensed one of the partners, Craig Horrocks, that he has set up a site here which has a copy of the complaint, an open letter to MS users, and assorted news articles. You can be assured that this law firm is not about to take it lying down, as this site shows.
A Law Firm here in New Zealand went as far as to lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission regarding Microsoft's new licensing regime. The new scheme has so incensed one of the partners, Craig Horrocks, that he has set up a site here which has a copy of the complaint, an open letter to MS users, and assorted news articles. makes for interesting reading.
I agree. It's a case of do you come up with products that utilise broadband, and show consumers, "hey, this is what we can do for you", or do you wait for consumers to come to you and say "hey, we want to do this". One is definitely the precursor to the other, but the question is which...
Here in New Zealand the government is in the process of building a web portal for most government services (In a country with the population density of NZ, it is so much easier to go online and do what's required, than drive for miles), and has also budgeted millions for the purpose of having broadband available to every school (and many community organisations) in the country. Project Probe essentially gives financial help and definite customers (schools, regional councils, community organisations, government departments) to the companies who win the tenders.
When you have individuals who have grown up with broadband at school entering the marketplace (and hassling parents for 'decent' internet along the way) I think this will be the catalyst required for a groundswell of change.
Here in New Zealand, the incumbent (ex govt owned) has the monopoly on the 'last mile' local loop. This means the actual line that goes into the houses, businesses etc is owned by one company. While there was supposed to be clauses in the sale contract to prevent abuse of this power, Telecom of course found ways around it. A competitor, TelstraClear, built networks in Christchurch and Wellington and offered the same or better services for 25% less cost, and guess what happened? Telecom replied in the same way Microsoft have, and matched them pricewise in the locales they were operating in. Perhaps if either company had product offerings that were truely worth the premium being charged, this would not have been their response.
Competition is the best, or perhaps the only way of reducing supernormal profits in a free-market economy. However, even this still relies on true free-market structure, which as long as humans, with bounded rationality and cognitive limits, are a part of, will never really happen. Barriers to entry (such as owning the 'last mile' or having the dominant software standards) will always be present, especially in countries where dollars have their own language.
A monopoly exists when there is only one company in the industry, or supplying a particular product - this isn't the case here. Consumers do have a choice at present, as other posters have stated. The fact that compatibility, which is highly desirable, is one of the key features of the Microsoft products does not mean other choices are not present.
The difference is not monopoly rents - it is actually referred to in economics as "supernormal profits". Generally these happen under perfect competition (i.e. a market situation) in short-run situations, where the timeframe being considered is not long enough to allow potential competitors time to enter the market.
However, barriers to entry can cause time frames to change somewhat with regard to competition. Barriers to entry present would be in the form of economies of scale, and IP rights to industry standards.
Slashdot Mirror
Why give up? This is exactly what they want - keep battering for long enough, and cracks will show. A Law Firm here in New Zealand went as far as to lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission regarding Microsoft's new licensing regime. Although the complaint was rejected, the new scheme has so incensed one of the partners, Craig Horrocks, that he has set up a site here which has a copy of the complaint, an open letter to MS users, and assorted news articles. You can be assured that this law firm is not about to take it lying down, as this site shows.
A Law Firm here in New Zealand went as far as to lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission regarding Microsoft's new licensing regime. The new scheme has so incensed one of the partners, Craig Horrocks, that he has set up a site here which has a copy of the complaint, an open letter to MS users, and assorted news articles. makes for interesting reading.
I agree. It's a case of do you come up with products that utilise broadband, and show consumers, "hey, this is what we can do for you", or do you wait for consumers to come to you and say "hey, we want to do this". One is definitely the precursor to the other, but the question is which...
Here in New Zealand the government is in the process of building a web portal for most government services (In a country with the population density of NZ, it is so much easier to go online and do what's required, than drive for miles), and has also budgeted millions for the purpose of having broadband available to every school (and many community organisations) in the country. Project Probe essentially gives financial help and definite customers (schools, regional councils, community organisations, government departments) to the companies who win the tenders.
When you have individuals who have grown up with broadband at school entering the marketplace (and hassling parents for 'decent' internet along the way) I think this will be the catalyst required for a groundswell of change.
I see they're running Windows.
Here in New Zealand, the incumbent (ex govt owned) has the monopoly on the 'last mile' local loop. This means the actual line that goes into the houses, businesses etc is owned by one company. While there was supposed to be clauses in the sale contract to prevent abuse of this power, Telecom of course found ways around it. A competitor, TelstraClear, built networks in Christchurch and Wellington and offered the same or better services for 25% less cost, and guess what happened? Telecom replied in the same way Microsoft have, and matched them pricewise in the locales they were operating in. Perhaps if either company had product offerings that were truely worth the premium being charged, this would not have been their response.
Competition is the best, or perhaps the only way of reducing supernormal profits in a free-market economy. However, even this still relies on true free-market structure, which as long as humans, with bounded rationality and cognitive limits, are a part of, will never really happen. Barriers to entry (such as owning the 'last mile' or having the dominant software standards) will always be present, especially in countries where dollars have their own language.
A monopoly exists when there is only one company in the industry, or supplying a particular product - this isn't the case here. Consumers do have a choice at present, as other posters have stated. The fact that compatibility, which is highly desirable, is one of the key features of the Microsoft products does not mean other choices are not present. The difference is not monopoly rents - it is actually referred to in economics as "supernormal profits". Generally these happen under perfect competition (i.e. a market situation) in short-run situations, where the timeframe being considered is not long enough to allow potential competitors time to enter the market. However, barriers to entry can cause time frames to change somewhat with regard to competition. Barriers to entry present would be in the form of economies of scale, and IP rights to industry standards.
Microsoft see their 'window' of opportunity, and take it...and take it...and take it..and keep taking...
After attempting to visit Apple Discussions and failing (now /.ed), where else do ya go?
Must be infestious - oops infectious...
You and me both - looks like /. are running their own 'Switch' campaign.