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Jack

On 8/19/2012 2:02 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:43:57 -0400, Jack wrote:

On 8/19/2012 8:55 AM, HeyBub wrote:
Jack wrote:

Meanwhile, MS and
Apple are making 30-40% profits on their monopoly, and no one even
whispers windfall profit. Quite a joke.

That's because Microsoft and Apple are not exactly monopolies: they have
robust and effective competitors. Their competitors are themselves.

I'd love to not have a monopoly like that. MS controls 93% of the
market, Apple most of the rest. Sounds like a monopoly to me, probably
more of a monopoly than AT&T had when they were broken up.

Not buying 93% but...

What would you buy? MS has slipped a bit because of mobile OS's but
there DT share is still in excess of 90%. Mac about 5.25%, iOS has
2.05%, Linux is at 0.95%, Java ME is at 0.81% and Android is at just
0.49%. So MS controls 90% of the market, close enough to a monopoly for
me. Moreover, when competition is "robust" your profit margin will be
way closer to 7% of oil companies than the 30% of MS.

Yet Apple's market cap is larger. Go figure.

Stock prices are related to the imagination of the buyer. It may or may
not reflect whats going on.

If they didn't improve their products with new features and the like, their
revenue streams would wither.

Nope, that is the problem with monopolies like MS. Lack of competition
means they can sell garbage with little fear of revenue streams
withering, and, regardless of what the stooges say, Windows has been
crap from day one. Any sort of healthy competition and MS would have
died or provided a quality product. They are a perfect example of
exactly why monopolies are bad for the consumer.

Except that there have been competitors. None have done well. Sure, M$ has
pulled some pretty underhanded crap, and should have been slapped around. That
was long ago and milk spilled...

Yes, and the consumer is still paying the price, and MS continues with a
monopoly on the DT PC OS. What will happen with Mobile crap may or may
not be another issue.

So it is with most "monopolies." They've got to periodically provide a
better product at a lower price or they're out of business.

That is exactly wrong. Without competition, they do not have to provide
a better product. It's one of the problems with capitalism addressed by
the Sherman Anti trust act.

They do have to provide a better product or no one will buy the new. Exactly
that happened with Vista.

So you think if a monopoly turns out crap, then sells you some improved
crap, but still crap, and does it in a way that makes their old crap
obsolete with no support, that is somehow competition? You sound like
HeyBubba...

It was crap, so people (almost all corporations)
told them to pound salt, and forced them to keep XP around. M$ can only force
so much crap before they lose. ...and lose they did; big time.

What did they lose, market domination went from 93% to 92.99%? They
lost nothing, they are a monopoly.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com