That Falling Star in Toronto

[Joel Goguen]

On Sun, 2010-02-21 at 11:54 -0500, idleone wrote:
> Perhaps I don't understand the news paper business but I thought that
> providing a good product in whatever business was how a business
> maximizes profit.
Oh dear, I'm being cynical twice in one day :)

By that theory, the best product for a particular task should be the one
with the most profit (or at least gross revenue).  I dare say Microsoft
has significant profits despite not having the best product for a number
of the jobs their products are used for.  By the theory that the way to
maximize profit is to provide a good product, Microsoft should be
getting Windows-related revenue from only a few niche markets and
Canonical and Red Hat should have so much spare cash their employees go
swimming in it over their lunch breaks ;)  Similarly, had the best
product meant maximizing profits, AMD CPUs would have made AMD a very
rich company a few times over not that many years ago.

Business theory suggests that yes indeed, good products maximize
profits.  Business practise suggests that only works for smaller
companies, once you pass some certain size it's something else entirely
that brings in profits.

Microsoft isn't all bad though...I admit to being a huge fan of their
ergonomic keyboard and mouse, and I make good use of my XBox360 when I'm
not busy with school :)

-- 
Joel Goguen
Ubuntu User #15951

When we help, we benefit.
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