Friday, November 11, 2005

PBS | I, Cringely . November 10, 2005 - Paper War

PBS | I, Cringely . November 10, 2005 - Paper War "Microsoft always needs a bogeyman, and in this case, it is Google. There can be only one devil, so Yahoo is dismissed as a "media company" and AOL is ignored completely. This is not a realistic competitive scenario. While AOL's position is uncertain given current ownership discussions with Microsoft and others, in web services, Yahoo represents as big a threat to Microsoft as Google.
But I have to say that Gates or Ozzie or whoever actually wrote these documents has done a very effective job of differentiating the company roles in a way that makes Google appear to be the bad guy, and Microsoft appear to be the good guy. Google is going to develop and deploy Internet services while Microsoft is going to ENABLE the deployment of such services BY ITS DEVELOPER PARTNERS. This makes Google the would-be monopolist.
Looking deeper, though, we see that the only way Microsoft can achieve its vision is by continuing to own the platform. They want us to be GRATEFUL, in fact, that such an enlightened outfit is running the store. And this will work to an extent, but only to an extent. Then what happens? All hell breaks loose as Microsoft again changes the game."

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