Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 07:25:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
Subject: Re: Microsoft and Bill Gates 


Alan raises some intersting questions.  I will raise another: how will 
the increased concentration in the computer industries (software, 
hardware, peripherals, etc) affect the pace of technological change?

Market concentration is a statistic measuring the extent to which large 
firms control a particular market.  It can be readily demonstrated that 
concentration has increased rapidly in all sectors relating to 
computers.  That is, these sectors used to be competitive in the 
"classical" sense (large numbers of firms engaging in price competition 
and technological change) and are now dominated by oligopolies (a few 
very large firms dominating the market which emphasize product 
differentiation and advertising).  Bill Gates made the point repeatedly 
that consumers drive market demand, but he didn't refer to the process 
whereby large firms, like Microsoft, help to create and shape demand 
through the process of marketing and advertising.

Most economists have tended to view the process in the following way: 
after a market becomes "mature" and becomes dominated by oligopolies, 
firms in that market CEASE to engage in price competition and 
technological change.  Consequently, changes in concentration and market 
structure have big implications for the pace and nature of future 
developments in both product and process technologies.

This list has been relatively quiet -- let's see if we can bring it to 
life again.

Jerry

On Sat, 27 May 1995, Alan Sondheim wrote:

> 
> 
> I think that this increasing monopolization/integration of services 
> vis-a-vis Microsoft will lead ultimately to increasing regulation as 
> well. There is also a rumor (more than that I think) that NYNEX here in 
> New York will start offering free SLIP Internet connections to its 
> customers - this as a way of totalizing the business again (supposed to 
> happen by the end of the 3rd/begining of 4th quarter). The smaller 
> servers will be driven out of business, of course, and if Gates etc. has 
> his way, the Internet will develop a "look" that is already becoming 
> increasingly corporate. 
> 
> Gates is like WIRED itself: dissembling, carrying vestiges of 60s 70s 
> leftism, but ultimately foreclosing any possibility of radicality. And I 
> don't think that either Gates or WIRED may be aware of their tunnel 
> vision, and the fact that this results in tunnels being built for all of us.
> 
> Alan
> 
> On Fri, 26 May 1995 glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Did anybody see the NBC special tonight called "Tycoon" profiling Bill 
> > Gates and Microsoft?  It raised some possible issues for us to discuss, 
> > such as, competition in the software market, new product development in 
> > personal computers, and the state's role in developing the "information 
> > superhighway" and anti-trust legislation.  How will these developments 
> > affect capital accumulation, market structure and workers?  
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >      --- from list technology-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> > 
> 
> 
>      --- from list technology-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 


     --- from list technology-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------