Competition Act

[Russell McOrmond]

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009, mcr at simtone.net wrote:

> Russell can say more.

   First, an echo of what MCR said..

   The other problem will be Apple, given what they are doing with the tied 
and locked hardware/software platforms they sell, it will be hard to 
comparatively find fault with Microsoft.  The bureau will do analysis of 
the relevant markets to see if there is someone that can abuse a dominant 
market position (IE: it isn't just what they are doing, but their 
influence on the market).  For portable media players Apple is as dominant 
as Microsoft is for legacy desktop operating systems.  Apple is a 
monopolist in a growth market, while Microsoft is a monopolist in an 
decreasingly relevant legacy market.

   That said, I'm all for signing this type of thing and seeing what comes 
from it.  I don't expect much to come out of it, given by the time the 
Competition Bureau would get around to bother to do anything the market 
might have already solved the "Microsoft" problem and we'll be on to the 
next problem.  (This still may be a decade away, even with MS filing 
losses and having such a hard time making money outside of their legacy 
cash cows)


   Watch in the next few years for the video game companies, which are 
larger than both hollywood and the recording industry, to adopt the next 
gen iPhone/iPod devices and see what happens to these 
personal/portable/networked devices and the competition in the video game 
hardware market.  The bulk of societies primary tools to interact with the 
communications network will be entirely locked down, with strong legal 
protections of those locks.  And Apple will still be able to bamboozle 
their "Fanboys" into believing that Apple isn't in the one in control (IE: 
like their claims about the recording and motion picture industry, Apple 
will misdirect so-called "DRM" complaints to the video game companies).


   Microsoft is really the old-economy problem, with Apple and 
anti-circumvention (anti digital technology ownership) laws being the next 
gen problem.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
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   home theatre, or portable media player from my cold dead hands!"