[ Thanks to Chris Jones
for this link. ]
“How do you estimate the value to consumers of an
alternative operating system that never came into being because of
Microsoft’s multiple strategies of destruction? Competitive
innovation is the key to consumer welfare in the information age.
Its loss cannot be dismissed lightly.“
“Further, any time a company develops and gives away a product
for free–as Microsoft did with its browser–we could naively say
“consumers benefit, look no farther.” Or we could realistically
ask, “Why would Microsoft deliberately lose huge amounts of money
in the short term?” Answer: to make even more money in the long
term. Do we have to ask who will pay these higher prices?”
“In the short term perhaps Microsoft only overcharged consumers
$20 per operating system (and perhaps another $50 on Microsoft
Office, etc.). But $20 times 200,000,000 computers is not a trivial
monopoly overcharge.”