[ILUG] Branding (Was: Small office project)

[John P. Looney]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2001 at 09:53:55AM -0000, cybersean3000 at yahoo.com mentioned:
> Microsoft are accused by the US Dept of Justice to have something like a 
> 90% market share monopoly.  It is not that Winderz is intuitive, it is 
> the fact that the consumer thinks he has no choice, and is confronted 
> with Winderz everywhere, the work place, the consumer computer shops, 
> magazines, books, adverts.  What trendy pop song did RedHat use to 
> release 7.0?  What sarchastic American comedian (referring to Lotus Notes 
> using Dennis Leary as a spokes person) did Mandrake hire to announce 8.0?

 Bah. 

 Microsoft is not that much easier to use. It's not that much better. What
it has is branding. It's got a 90% market share for the same reason that
massive corporations like Nike, Addias, Marlboro, Budweiser etc. are the
only ones that can compete in a market for commodity products.

 And an OS is a commoddity - it's just there to run tools, which create
information in various forms, be it paper, electronic, or video. 

 If Nike turned around and said that it would be illegal to wear their
runners if you wore non-nike tracksuits, do you think that many people
would turn to smaller companies making runners ? No. They'd stick with
whatever the sweatshops found by Nike's "outsourcing" dept. would produce.

 In the absence of strong governmental intervention, commodity markets
will always support those that can produce cheapest, with the most
marketing money & the least principles. There is a reason why Nike buy
from factories in Sri Lanka & Indonesia - because people care less about
people working from 7am to 10pm, being force fed contraceptives to avoid
time off for maternity, force fed amphetamines to keep them awake when big
orders require 48 hour shifts, etc. than they do for a poxy logo.

 And trying to beat that sort of mentality with a "simpler user interface"
is like trying to screw a beachball.

Kate

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John Looney             Chief Scientist
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