Microsoft still has an effective desktop OS monopoly. Last I bought a computer, I still had to pay a Windows tax. So their long-run market manipulation seems to be alive and well.
It's true that they haven't been able to dominate new markets effectively. But that says more about the volatility of technology and Microsoft's fear of another Department of Justice beat-down than it does about any principle of economics.
The Internet was a once-a-century disruption. (One that could well have been throttled in its cradle had AT&T not been broken up by government intervention.) Counting on lightning strikes like that, rather than robust regulatory support of competition, strikes me more as a religious outlook than a practical one.
> Last I bought a computer, I still had to pay a Windows tax.
Chances are you actually got a discount thanks to MS. And I don't mean a discount on the OS.
Places like Dell make money mostly on the more expensive hardware, upgrades, and support.
Below this (at the sub-1k level), you're getting a PC at marginal cost (and sometimes a loss), that gets monetized by Dell via desktop real-estate (all the crapware).
Microsoft still has an effective desktop OS monopoly. Last I bought a computer, I still had to pay a Windows tax. So their long-run market manipulation seems to be alive and well.
It's true that they haven't been able to dominate new markets effectively. But that says more about the volatility of technology and Microsoft's fear of another Department of Justice beat-down than it does about any principle of economics.
The Internet was a once-a-century disruption. (One that could well have been throttled in its cradle had AT&T not been broken up by government intervention.) Counting on lightning strikes like that, rather than robust regulatory support of competition, strikes me more as a religious outlook than a practical one.