Jonathan Cable Speech 2301Dom Bongiorni10 November 1998 Monopolize MicrosoftThe fact is inevitable; our lives have come to rely upon the computers that we use every day.
We rely upon them to sort, send, and receive information in school, business, and even our personal lives. The computer industry is a highly competitive and risky business to get into mainly due to the competition that already exists in the field. At the top of the competition is software super giant Microsoft, whose programs run on a great percentage of all the computers in the world. Most say that Microsoft has formed a monopoly in the software market, and is trying to keep others out of competition by using deceptive business tactics.
However, maybe Microsoft is just doing what it does best, creating software. Fact is, if Microsoft can make a program that will run faster and make other programs run faithfully with it, then there is no reason why consumers should not buy it. It's not the fact there aren't other choices out there; it is that consumers prefer Microsoft and stay faithful to it. Is that not the goal of any company: Get a customer, please them, and then get them to come back? However, the author feels the way many others including the government feel.
Microsoft has created a market that is impenetrable to any other company except for itself. Like it or not, Microsoft rules. With a market value that far outstrips its racing sales. Microsoft is the world's #1 software company.
Its software includes the Windows operating systems, Excel spreadsheets, word-processing programs , and reference works. The Microsoft Network provides online content, and its Internet Explorer browser has battles Netscape's for market share. With NBC, the company operates cable news channel MSNBC. It also provides free e-mail and other services. CEO and founder Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, owns only 21% of the company. (Infoseek, Microsoft Corporation)To illustrate the author's belief on Microsoft's business strategies he sets up a competition for Microsoft to compete with.
Macrohard is a new company trying to plant some roots in the computer software industry. Macrohard may want to publish a program similar to that of one Microsoft may already have marketed. The author suggests, using an illustration of a giant hammer, that Microsoft will use its crude business tactic's to crush its newly formed competition. However, when millions of people run out to by Microsoft products over it's competition every day; is Microsoft at fault? Microsoft was built to it's standard today because of it's well know seal of quality and ease of use.
Macrohard just needs to prove to the public that there product exceeds that of Microsoft's, the market is open just waiting for the next improvement, the opportunity is there to grab but is there another product. According to several recent surveys, a majority of U.S. citizens and top business leaders believe Microsoft Corp. and other American companies should remain free to innovate and add new features to their products without government intervention.
(Press Pass, Microsoft.com) The message that is construed in the cartoon is pretty straight forward even without words. However, labeling of certain distinct features, such as the large mallet, give the reader a more specific interpretation of the cartoon. A direct message offer by labeling reinforces the author's perspective and standpoint. All we can see of Macrohard Corporation is a mangled body under the large heavy mallet. The composed figure, Bill Gates, show's not a strain in his entire body as he holds the large mallet over the competition.
The author may use these effects to receive sympathy from its audience for Macrohard Corporation, and make Microsoft appear to be the bad guy. The author chooses to fill this cartoon with motivational factors to support his belief. The author wants you to feel sorry for the squished company that Microsoft has taken out; thus, blaming Microsoft for the lack of competition in the software market. The author wants you to make sure you realize that Microsoft is the reason for the downfall of this company. Not their failure to keep up with the software superpower, but impossibility of reaching Microsoft's untouchable status. The value that he uses reminds us that it is unconstitutional to have monopoly in the United States.
Therefor, Microsoft is not working for our benefit or for the benefit of the United States. The ideal that is never touched though is that it initially the consumer decides what to buy, and there are other company's out there trying to compete with Microsoft currently. There are reasons why Microsoft technology is preferred over others. The showing of Bill Gates as the holder of the mallet could be assumed as attacking the person rather than the argument. Bill Gates isn't Microsoft.
However, the way this cartoon and many others project is that the "Business Tactics" are that of strictly Bill Gates himself, not the rest of his Staff. This belief is completely ludicrous to believe. Bill Gates may be the Chair of Microsoft but he is not the only shareholder and say-so in the company. The author leaves the assumption that the monopoly by Microsoft is a bad thing.
If Microsoft is developing mind-boggling software techniques and leads the technology industry then other businesses can benefit from the software that is being published. The simple aspects of supply in demand are being enforced here. (O'Brien 132) There is a demand for a product and Microsoft is simply filing that demand. Microsoft is not using its power to gain a monopoly it's using its brain to run a decent successful company.Microsoft's leap in the computer Market has been a concern for many years. If the consumers were truly outraged by Microsoft's success they would not continue to buy their products.
The reason why Microsoft is so successful is because it gives the public exactly what it wants and needs, when it needs it and wants it. Microsoft is not stopping or limiting any other company from entering the race. It's just whether they can stay in the race that remains the question. Company's such as Netscape have developed products that are at the competitive level of Microsoft and are widely used same as the Microsoft products are. It's just a matter of whether "Macrohard" can keep up with the fast paced industry of the computer market. The key is to stay one step in front of the consumer and Microsoft appears to be the only company that has shown clear ability to do so.
We can't limit Microsoft for delivering a product that the public prefers. It's simply the basic economic principle of supply in demand. Infoseek, 1997-1998 Hoover's Inc., Microsoft Corporation, www.infoseek.
com.Microsoft, 1998 Microsoft Inc., Microsoft Press Pass "American Consumers and Business Leaders Support Microsoft's Right Too Innovate", www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1998/may98/surveypr.
htmO'Brien, David, W.W. Norton & Co., 1993 David O'Brien, Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, third edition
