Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Platformonomics - Regulating the Land that Moore's Law Forgot

A classic and timely Charles Fitzgerald post; read the full post 

In the days of yore, when mainframes ruled the Earth

And so we come full circle: "IBM accused of abusing position in European mainframe market".

Out of the limelight, IBM has spent significant time and money lobbying various governments to hobble competitors in the last fifteen years, all the while maintaining the biggest monopoly in technology with the mainframe.  Now the antitrust spotlight returns to them, amid accusations that IBM is doing exactly what got them into trouble decades ago (refusing to unbundle their software from their hardware).

IBM is very good at milking the mainframe installed base and defend it aggressively.  And for good reason: I have seen numbers that suggest the mainframe is still close to half of IBM's profits when you include hardware, software and surrounding (people) services.  Forced forklift upgrades every couple of years are a favored strategy.

(Now go read the rest of the post…)

Platformonomics - Regulating the Land that Moore's Law Forgot

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