On 14/09/2010 20:59, Tamas Rudnai wrote: > On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:26 PM, Oli Glaser wro= te: > >> I get the point, but if every company were made equal it would be a pret= ty >> boring market out there... >> I agree that every company has n unhappy customers, but not that the >> percentage of n is equal in every case. >> My original statement was not backed up by any real research though, jus= t >> an >> personal observation rather than a statement of facts. >> > Monopolism is never good for customers... But at the moment it is still > works for both Apple and Microsoft -- and we have seen similar things bef= ore > with IBM and AT&T, right? > > Tamas Apple are not Monopolists. All their products are niche I can buy many different phones and media players. Some better than=20 Apple. Certainly Apple has poor choice of phone models. Only one current=20 model. Their OS has less than 5% share. No one has to or needs to buy an Apple product to have the functions,=20 services and features. I don't use iTunes. I prefer to buy physical media. MS have had in the past close to a monopoly. We are closer to having=20 real alternatives on desktop and Linux is real alternative for Server,=20 but I still have many applications with no alternative on Mac OS and=20 none to poor on Linux, though Linux supports far more for my desktop=20 use. I only have one Server App that needs Windows rather than Linux,=20 and it is only to automate patch distribution to Windows OS ... :-) Intel has had overly dominant position on Server & desktop & laptop=20 CPUs. By Bribery of at least Dell. ARM cleverly makes no chips. The ARM is licensed reasonably so many=20 makers innovate different solutions of chip with ARM core. Unlike Intel. So ARM "monopoly" of phones is not like MS as Texas, Samsung, Qualcom=20 etc are real competitors and it drives down cost and increases innovation. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .