Re: Microsoft takes on history

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:2TvH8.1710$Np5.1619@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> written in 1967, and since then many of the book's examples of companies
> that were unbeatable has taken a beating. Contrary to the book's
contention,
> we have seen major retailers go bankrupt: we may soon see K-Mart join the
> ranks of Montgomery Ward, Grants, Gimbels , and Child World. GM has lost
> control of its market. Galbraith does write about a retailer whose
dominance
> cannot be challenged, but it was not Wal-Mart. And in the area of
computers,
> this tome treats the very idea that some guys working out of a garage
could
> threaten IBM's dominance with great derision.
>
Capitalism without failure is like Religion without sin! :-)

Never said that it would be easy to challenge the market dominance of a
large corporation. Said it can and has happened.


> In short, the notion that Microsoft is impervious to challengers from
> smaller companies (are there any other kind) should be taken with a grain
of
> salt. Microsoft once played the role of David against IBM's Goliath; now
> that Microsoft is in the role of Goliath, it would take just one company
> with the next great new idea to bring MS to its knees.
>
Maybe a pound of salt. :-) No company is impervious. Any company can fail.
We've seen too many examples of very large companies either being displaced
as the market leader or outright going bankrupt to be convinced in the
imperviousness of any large corporation - given some time, of course. Open
Source software and small companies that exploit it could kill or
significantly shrink Microsoft. Its Darwin in action! Small companies can
now distribute software at near zero cost and recoup their engineering costs
in services and are willing to forgo billions in profit in order to more
reliably make mere millions (or at least a comfortable living!) and that's
just too bad for Microsoft. You adapt, or you die.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com