RE: Thank for your correspondence - The letter I got from the folks at FAST400

Monopolies are beneficial only when they're regulated to balance consumers'
and stockholders' interests.  The theory is a monopoly, knowing it doesn't
have competition (because, under law, competitors can't get into the
market), doesn't have to consider business risk (loss of profit).  Consider
electric power, the Post Office, and telecommunications...and before I get
flamed, the Post Office is the result of government slacks caving into Moe
Biller for decades as well as the rise of FedEx, fax machines, and e-mail.

The cost of capital (stock) would be prohibitively high if anybody could get
into the electric power business, since a competitor could jump up, steal
your business, and your investors would be left with nothing.  For a
utility, with a more-or-less assured stream of revenue and profits (no
competitors, remember?), bonds are cheaper source of capital.   When you
think about electric power and local telco deregulation, remember the
infrastructure's in place: power and telephone lines are being shared by
competitors.  My local telco, Verizon, remains clueless and
incompetent...but now they're very polite.  In the old days they were
clueless, incompetent, and nasty.  Deregulation does make a difference!

Deregulation is changing the face of business and it's going to be
interesting.  The effects of deregulating an industry may last 30 years or
more; the shock waves continue to reverberate through the trucking industry
after 22 years and many of today's technology applications are predicated
upon the deregulation of the telecommunications industry (lower costs, more
technology vendors offering new products and services).

IBM isn't a monopoly; it's not protected from competitors by legislative
fiat.  IBM has a unique product, the iSeries, which has a loyal and vocal
following.  In finest capitalist tradition, IBM's free to price it as they
see fit or until we have fits, whichever comes first (the latter).

The interactive tax is disgusting because it's opportunistic: when the last
5250 burns out, IBM will say, "Well, it was nice while it lasted...".  Of
course, I'm sure IBM is investing the interactive tax revenues in
application development tools programs.

IBM is telling us (in words and dollars) to get off of 5250.  Hey IBM: where
were our non-5250 development tools, education, and promotion seven years
ago, when we needed them? I have great hope in WDSC, even though it's still
in its infancy, so we'll assume WDSC is IBM's final answer (but we'd better
keep the lifeline number handy).

You think IBM has a monopoly...what does Microsoft have with control of 90%
of the world's desktops?  The answer: better marketing (although I
appreciate the efforts Anne Lucas puts forth, I dream of a Steve Ballmer
type screaming himself hoarse for the iSeries) and better lawyers.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Brad Stone
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 2:24 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Thank for your correspondence - The letter I got from the folks
at FAST400

Puzzled?  How so?  Monopolies are not in the best interest
of the consumer.  So, you understood my point by your
explaination.  At least it seems that way.

Brad

On Mon, 8 Jul 2002 18:20:45 -0700
 Jim Langston <jlangston@celsinc.com> wrote:
> Er, "every company would be an IBM or Microsoft"?  If
> they were all like IBM or Microsoft then they wouldn't be
> monopolies and would be like all the other companies and
> so there would be competition...
>
> I'm not saying I agree or disagree, I'm just kinda
> puzzled by that logic <g>
>
> Regards,
>
> Jim Langston
>
> From: "Brad" <brad@bvstools.com>
>
> Al,
>
> < SNIP >
>
> On the other hand, without this type of "competition"
> every company would be
> an IBM or Microsoft. ...
>
>  < SNIP >
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
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Bradley V. Stone
BVS.Tools
www.bvstools.com
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