Is Microsoft A Monopoly?
In year 1999, Microsoft has been accused by Justice Department of United States as the corporation was suspected for using anticompetitive contracts with personal computer(PC) manufacturers to maintain unlawful monopoly.
During that time, there were about 95 percent of PC with Intel processors running a Microsoft operating system(OS). On April 3,2000, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had came out with his conclusions of law. He stated that Microsoft had committed and attempted monopolization.
Monopoly is defined as existence of a single seller in the market who produces goods that have no substitutes. A single firm has control over the resources and market by selling a unique goods.
In my personal opinion, Microsoft is monopoly not because of their market share in the PC software market. Actually it is Microsoft production line rests upon state enforcement of legal monopolies of duplication known as copyright.
For instance, imagine that there are two farmer known as Edward and Jacob. Edward want to start his business with papaya. Initially Edward buy a papaya from Jacob and utilizes the seeds within the papaya to plant papaya trees. Edward spends his own energy and time on the whole papaya plantation. After harvesting, Edward can actually sell them in direct competition with Jacob.
However, if it is a Windows OS , Edward cannot simply duplicate and sell it for many times even he may invest money and time. It is a crime where involves copyright violation.
It is distinctive between coercive monopoly and private dominant corporation like Microsoft. A coercive monopoly is created by government act and it achieves market share by legal protection against competition. On the other hand, Microsoft achieves...
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...devices. Now Google's Android and Apple's iOS is in the ascendency. Basically Windows' global share has been cut down to about 30 percent. Not forget to mention , Android is currently a bigger platform compared to Windows.
Lastly, and most recently, this chart from analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco illustrates that the PC business is no longer just getting dwarfed by the explosion of smartphone and tablet sales . PC no longer became the center of the personal computing world. Instead, it becomes a specialized office-productivity device. Multiple choice of devices made the full-blown PC is always not the most convenient, effective or simplest alternative to perform what a user wants to do.
In a nut shell, a current market share in computer industry does not guarantee of future success. Innovative competitors frequently break down what might appear to be monopolies.
Monopoly, means that a firm is sole seller of a product without any close substitutes, controls over the prices the firms charge. Government sometime grants a monopoly because doing so is viewed not only to be in the public interest, but also to encourage it with price incentives. However, monopolies fail to meet their resource allocation efficiently, producing less than the socially desirable quantities of output and charging prices above marginal cost. Thus, this inefficiency of monopoly causes the quantity sold to fall short of social needs. In order to handle the problems, policymakers in the government regulate the behavior of monopolies and try to make monopolized industries more competitive
... the DOJ require the New York Times to eliminate its business section in order to protect The Wall Street Journal? Why should the answer to that question be any different if the Times were to sell its business section separately, or if the Times sold 90 percent of the newspapers in New York? Our antitrust laws were not intended to prop up competitors but to ensure that consumers benefit from the widespread availability of goods and services at fair prices." Therefore I truly believe Microsoft is not a monopoly.
Microsoft is an American company that was founded by William Henry Gates III, as known as Bill Gates, and his his high school friend Paul Gardner Allen in 1975 April 4. But unluckily, Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkin’s disease. In 1985 October 20, Microsoft released Microsoft window. It is the first original operating system. It is a graphical extension for MS-DOS. Even though, it’s not handy like nowadays Microsoft window. Then in 1990, Microsoft introduced Microsoft office, which is a bundle office productivity application with Microsoft Word and Microsoft excel. The Microsoft Word was the first application that could display italics. And the Microsoft Office would be available for free for all the PC World’s computer that is produce on that same year in November. In the 2000 February 17, Microsoft released Window 2000 operating system, and according to Microsoft it is the most safe operating system in the world at that time. But still, there are so many problems and glitches need to be fixed. Besides there are mutable computer viruses are made specially to attack Window 2000. Rush to gain back the sales. In the 2001 October 25 Window xp is available. The new operating system fix most of the problem. Although some of the user were still complaining the system that it will take your information, but in the 2007 January, there are 76% of people in the entire world are using the operating system.
I believe that Microsoft has the best intensions for society, because they are constantly developing the software market into a more competitive and challenging industry. Microsoft’s success as a company is partly due to its commitment to making the best product possible and strategic business practices. The first reason Microsoft is not a monopoly is because of the standardized quality of its OS. Second is the intelligent business practices Microsoft has engaged in through many of its business partners. The legal issues of the alleged antitrust accusations from the department of justice are just totally overrated.
The key issue is what should the government do about the monopolizing strategies of Microsoft. The entities that have a stake in the outcomes are Microsoft’s competition like Sun Micro Systems, Real Networks, Netscape and the general public as well as the government. The companies that are competing are affected because they want to get their specific products circulating in the market but are unable to do so because of the monopoly created by Microsoft. With more business competition the general public will benefit because of the increased probability of price wars and more opportunity for critical innovation in the industry. Also, the eventual decision made by the government concerning the future of Microsoft will play a key role in future public approval ratings.
At the beginning, a clear understanding of the word monopoly should be established before diving into the different aspects of monopoly. Therefore, here is the definition of monopoly according to invetopedia, “a monopoly is a situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given product or service.” (Investopedia, 2016)
Microsoft’s mission of placing a “PC running Microsoft software on every desk and in every home” drove their overall strategy early on. Depending on the business segment within Microsoft, one would see in place very different business models as the strategy for each line of business could vary. In the operating system (OS) segment, Microsoft initially brought in an existing product and modified this (MS-DOS) to work with the Intel microprocessor, which were the “brains” of the IBM PC. Microsoft partnered with IBM to provide the operating system for the IBM PC. In addition to developing Windows, Microsoft during this period was working to write applications for the Apple OS.
By law a monopoly is not allowed to exist in the US. It has been long debated whether Microsoft is a monopoly or not? Among other charges Microsoft was charged with "monopolizing the computer operating system market, integrating the Internet Explorer web browser into the operating system in an attempt to eliminate competition from Netscape, and using its market power to form anticompetitive agreements with producers of related goods" (SWLearning).
Microsoft, from its inception, has been known for its software, especially its Windows platform. It has changed the way we operate computers and through its software, has made the computer user-friendly and very efficient. Microsoft, however, does not want to only specialize in the software department. They have thus expanded their excellence in other departments such as gaming, music and hardware.
2) To me, a market monopoly is a good or service that has no available substitute. I think that since Monopolies are illegal in the United States, it is a hard to find a product that is a true Monopoly, but I think that Microsoft
In simple terms oligopoly refers to ‘competition among the few’. It is an economic situation where there is a small number of firms, selling competing products in the market. The oligopoly exists in the market, where there are 2 to 10 sellers, selling identical, or slightly different products in the market. According to experts, oligopoly is defined as a situation when the firm sets its market policy, as per the anticipated behavior of its
There are two different yet similar ethical issues surrounding Microsoft’s product pricing. Within the United States there has been growing concern that because Microsoft controls such a large portion of the market that they are using this to their advantage and to drive prices up. A number of cases have been brought to court and found Microsoft guilty of price fixing, causing them to refund money to consumers in states like California and Iowa. The ethical issue clearly surrounds Microsoft’s motives. Are they driving up prices and simply trying to make more money with no thought to the impact on the community, or are they trying to run a legitimate profit-based business that strives to keep make everyone happier and ...
Microsoft is currently the largest company in the computer industry. With a market capitalization of $291 billion, Microsoft has built an empire by dominating software sales for personal computers. Stock growth over the past 25 years has increased by more than 30,000%. However, Microsoft’s growth has substantially decreased since the market collapse of 2001(Niemond 25 April 2007).
Microsoft has always been known as a software company, and not well known for its hardware. In fact, the only hardware that Microsoft sells to the retail market is branded peripherals. In its heyday, Microsoft was a market leader, bring an operating system to the masses, and leading in internet search. In recent years, however, most of the moves that Microsoft has made have not been in a market leader position, but have been in response to competitors threatening Microsoft’s positions.
From 1980 to 1996, Apple’s competitive range in the PC industry was rocky. Although Apples products were unique and well built, they were overpriced compared to competing products from IBM and others. As competitor prices dropped, Apple prices stayed the same and the company saw a decline in sales as customers opted to purchase from its competitors. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, took many steps to improve the company’s competitive advantage. One of those steps was to compete with price by producing a low-cost computers that appealed to a mass-market. The second step was to form an alliance with rivals IBM and Novel in order to create new operating systems and applications...