On Tue, 16 Jan 2001, Paul Braun wrote:
> But only in things he knows he can win. If it's a field that he can
> clearly see that he's outclassed, he'll just walk away, saying,
> "We've determined that it's inconsequential, so we're not going to
> waste any more time on it." That way, he still appears to have
> conquered.
Then he comes back a couple years later when the idea actually proves to
have merit, harriedly develops a highly inferior competing product, uses
marketing might and FUD tactics to shove it down the throats of consumers,
eats up market share, drives the competitor's market share down, and then
ultimately buys the competing company. How many times have we seen this
happen? It's easier to count how many times the competitor actually ended
up coming out on top. I think I can keep count of that with my genitals.
Intuit is the most obvious example. MS kept pushing Money free with
almost every product they put out but Intuit was too savvy for them (a
credit to their CEO I think). Finally, MS tried to buy Intuit last year
(anyone remember that?) I believe the FTC or someone would not allow the
merger and killed it.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Wed Jan 17 2001 - 12:11:48 GMT