Re: Beware! the days of Oracle may be numbered

From: Mike Burden <michael.burden_at_capgemini.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 14:32:38 +0000
Message-ID: <36EE6B86.DB260BE3@capgemini.co.uk>

I have to agree that the future will be interesting. I think it's too early to tell yet what may happen.

The big point here is that IF Microsoft can take out a company like Oracle then really there's nothing they can't do. This will prove to me they are a monopoly, as if I needed proof. They will have cleared the floor of all serious competitors in any market. They will have no competition and other companies can only hide and hope they won't set their sites on them. This just can't be right.

They just have too many advantages. My analogy is that of the Terminator. You just can't stop it. It will never give in. It will just keeping coming and all you can do is run or hide.

That's their advantage, money walks through their door and they own the dominate OS so they can integrate better, if not yet then eventually. They don't need to attack hard, they can just sit there and wait slowly eroding their competitors markets. How many companies can do this? None, they can only do it because they have the client OS market (And major apps Word, Mail etc.) sown up. Because this market is so big they just sit and wait and slowly improve the apps until they complete. That's a massive advantage. The client side apps and OS earns the money and they use this advantage to leverage all their other products. You would need all the money in the world to compete with this or the OS - the foundation.

Most of the MS server software takes many releases before they are even comparable, but do they loose out, no. Most companies at these early stages would give up or go to the wall or wouldn't even start. Microsoft have no worries because they know they will have a sixth and seventh bite at the cherry and if that fails they can always give it away.

All this from a company that made if big with ...... DOS a really good OS:-)

Linux may have something to say but only from the server perspective. MS have still got the bottom of the pyramid. That is why they are unassailable. They can undermine or push out all their competition from the bottom, were it hurts most. Most of the other companies have fallen because Microsoft was at the bottom of the market which as we all know now, turned out to be the most lucrative and has eventually grown to dwarf all other markets.

Have MS ever been first with a product? I can't think of one off hand but that won't put them off. Just wait till version 17.

"KeyStroke (Jack L. Swayze Sr.)" wrote: