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It's Good To Be Back (6/1/99)
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Ahhhh... Feel that? It's like a cool breeze on a hot summer day-- brought to you courtesy of "Redmond Justice." That's right, the drama's back in the swing of things, and just because the trial resumed with the rebuttal testimony of an economist is no reason to think that the proceedings weren't interesting. Franklin Fisher, a professor of economy at MIT, took the stand to counter the earlier testimony of Richard Schmalensee-- another MIT economist. (Things must be tense around the faculty water cooler at the Sloan School of Management, hmmm?)
If you think way back, you might recall that Schmalensee's argument was that Microsoft doesn't hold an operating system monopoly, because there's no operating system market to monopolize. According to an Inter@ctive Week Online article, though, Fisher maintained that Schmalensee's points were "confused," "muddled," and "simply wrong." (Ouch! Take it outside, fellas.) Not only is there an operating system market (since the vast majority of computers sold are PC's), he claims, but Microsoft has clearly engaged in behavior designed to kill competition that might threaten its place as king of the hill. The biggest example is Microsoft's spending of "hundreds of millions of dollars" to develop Internet Explorer, which it then gave away for free in an obvious attempt to thwart competitors like Netscape and Sun. Since IE couldn't generate revenue by such a plan, its only purpose could be to eliminate competitors from the marketplace.
So it's only the first day back, and the sparks are already flying on "Redmond Justice." You just have to love a show on which an economist sums up Microsoft's defense so succinctly: "They don't have monopoly power now because someone might come out and compete with them." So now we have to wait for Schmalensee to take the stand to rebut Fisher's testimony. Stay tuned, because that's scheduled for later in the month. Perhaps we'll get more gems from him like the one about how Microsoft "record[s] operating system sales by hand on sheets of paper." Ain't life grand?
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SceneLink (1573)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/1/99 episode: June 1, 1999: Yet another analyst has jumped on the Apple bandwagon. Meanwhile, CompUSA makes you an offer you can't refuse, and "Redmond Justice" resumes transmission with a battle of dueling economists...
Other scenes from that episode: 1571: Another One On Board (6/1/99) See? Wall Street may take a while to catch on, but they're finally taking notice of Apple. Yet another analyst has raised his rating on Apple's stock; this time it's Richard Gardner of Salomon Smith Barney, who, according to a Mac Observer article, just upped his "neutral" rating to a "buy," citing strong iMac sales and other signs of health and growth... 1572: Don't Delay-- Call Now (6/1/99) So we were so fixated on checking last Sunday's Sears circular to see how they'd handle the debut of the iMac in their 800 stores (they, uh, didn't-- but we're told the official introduction has been pushed forward 'til next week) that we completely forgot to check the CompUSA circular...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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