Questions asked
in this forum:
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Should the Justice Department consider "vaporware" an unfair practice? |
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Why hasn't a similar suit come about earlier? |
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What occupies the 10 percent of the market Microsoft doesn't control? |
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What innovations is Microsoft responsible for? |
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Is there less public resentment towards Microsoft than other monopolies? |
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Mark Hunt of London, Canada asks:
When guests on [the NewsHour] talk about the government stifling innovation, why don't you ask them what innovations they have in mind that Microsoft was responsible for?
Paul Gillin responds:
My position is that Microsoft has been very innovative in its business
practices but less so in technology. The technologies that have contributed
the most to its success - PC operating systems, graphical user interfaces
and office suites - were invented by other people. But Microsoft's ability
to package and sell them creatively to build market share has been
unparalleled. The company also does a remarkable job at recruiting third
party developers to write for Microsoft platforms. Remember that as late as
1990, Windows was given only a slim chance of becoming a mainstream
operating system vs. IBM's OS/2. Microsoft's ability to recruit developers
and sign up hardware makers to commit to Windows turned that around
completely. The company is a marketing steamroller.
As you can probably guess, I don't take seriously Microsoft's position that
the government is stifling innovation. The government seems to be quite
focused on stifling behavior that appears to be predatory. The net effect
of this should be more innovation, not less.
Next question...
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