Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy

[amicus_curious]

"AES" <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote in message 
siegman-5BD46C.18355124012009@news.stanford.edu">news:siegman-5BD46C.18355124012009@news.stanford.edu...
> In article <497b817e$0$1925$ec3e2dad@news.usenetmonster.com>,
> "amicus_curious" <ACDC@sti.net> wrote:
>
> > There are several things wrong with your notion, I think.  The first 
> > being
> > that Microsoft is somehow not "allowing" other companies to be "less 
> > timid"
> > about possible Linux offerings.  It is a myth widely held amongst the 
> > Linux
> > fans, I know, but there is absolutely nothing that Microsoft is doing to
> > overtly prevent such a thing.  Indeed, there is a direct agreement with 
> > the
> > US DOJ that nothing in that regard shall be done as part of the overall
> > settlement of the USA vs Microsoft case in the late 1990s.  An oversight
> > committee is in place to make sure.  Do you think they are asleep at the
> > switch?  You probably do, but you are wrong.
>
>      Might be prepared to believe these assertions, despite deeply
>      ingrained skepticism re anything to do with Microsoft, if it
>      weren't for the idiocy of this following sentence:
How does the one have anything to do with the other?

> > Nor is the economy helped by lowering the cost of goods sold in commerce.
>
>       If Microsoft is forced to lower its (monopolistically enhanced)
>      prices, and as a result many of their customers have some of
>      their money left to spend on other goods and services, you're
>      saying that that _hurts_ the economy?!?!?

You assume that the price points for Windows are established capriciously 
and arbitrarily.  The ignorance of juries and jurists aside, that is not 
true.  Prices are set based on what the product maker thinks is an optimum 
value proposition, i.e. how to obtain the optimum volume versus unit profit 
point.  This is based mostly on what the expected perception of the buyer is 
in terms of benefits to the buyer vs costs of acquisition.  Arbitrary 
reduction in prices for Windows might not necessarily result in lower prices 
for a Dell machine or an HP unless the OEM gives up his own price point 
strategy.  If he does, he simply lowers the amount of money realized 
overall, since the original price was optimal.  That reduces the cash flow 
and hurts the economy overall.