Microsoft and Antitrust

Microsoft's antitrust case stifled innovation
I remember doing this speech competition when the anti-trust case was going on. I was debating against it, saying how considering people were willing to pay a lot ($300+) for this little box containing one CD, it'd mean that instead of Microsoft is violating the Sherman Act, it's just that there are no competitors good enough.

Seriously I believe that one of the reasons Microsoft first got bombed with this case was due to the disappearance of Netscape (with AOL killing it). I mean if there are really no competitors, what can you do? Split your own company into half and make yourself compete against yourself? (I guess that's sort of what happened in the case of Intel vs. ARM though). Although I think those guys left on their own.

For example, I remember buying a machine with AMD CPU once (Thunderbird core I believe) and I roasted it by bumping the CPU fan off the CPU when running. The thing melted immediately. Contrarily, the Intel I had immediately lowered the frequency that it was running, and maintained the lower temperature. (I think AMD fixed that problem now though, hopefully haha)

I just think it's just pure stupidity that someone thinks their product should have a larger share just because they mimic someone else' thing. Apple didn't really create anything that's innovative, all their technology existed ages ago, but they managed to take such a big share of pie in this super competitive market. How? By caring about the details. I don't like the iphone here in Japan due to the softbank network sucking really bad, but the iphone itself is something altogether different. The details on the interface makes it really easy to use. The intuitiveness of the interface just makes someone a captive.

Maybe going to future, big manufacturers should hire more artists to design their interface instead of engineers.(i.e., Not like creative designer artists that makes super beautiful gadgets that's super hard to use.) I like the Android because you can customize it much more than Apple, but compared to the iOS, when you first get it, it's really a piece of crap.

Anyway, hope we see some good innovation from Microsoft now that the market can finally handle some innovations.

I still haven't had time to try out the Windows 8 Dev preview though... Need to find an old machine to try it on, and need to find some time to play around with it haha... Commuting for 4 hours a day (round trip) is fairly exhausting afterall..