Steve Ballmer's bogus threat

George,
Not that I really know (or even care) one way or the other on this just
wanted to remind you not to forget to add marketing (do you remember the
Win95 rollout?), testing (uhh.....), maintance and other misc cost. I
mean it has to cost *something* to ship a lawyer on a plane to threaten
to blow a company our of existence for daring to compete with them,
right???? Anyways my point is if even just half of the cost for M$
products went into their development I think it would have a *much*
better product than it has now.

Carl P.

On Wed, 2002-03-06 at 20:24, George Toft wrote:
> Hi Doc,
>
> Do you have a reference for this claim? Here's my math:
> Number of copies of Windows sold by Microsoft by 1999: 200 million
> Average licensing cost disclosed during Anti-Trust trial: $50 (about)
> Total revenue: $1 Billion.
>
> I really don't think MS paid that much for their OS development.
> Windows 95 was built by 100 people (based on an Easter Egg embedded
> in Windows). Let's say they averaged $60K per year, and it took 3
> years to build: $60K * 100 * 3 = $18,000K. So it cost about
> $30Million (had to adjust for overhead, SS taxes, benefits, etc).
>
> Here's a link from MS that shows they sold 1 million copies
> of Win2K Server (which they get about $750 each):
> http://www.microsoft.com/nz/presscentre/articles/2000/Mar15-03-OneMillionPR.stm
> So that means they made almost $1 billion in about 1 month time,
> on just Win2K Server.
>
> Somehow, I'm not convinced they are selling it at a loss. Surely
> it is not a profitable as the Server series, but it is still
> profitable.
>
>
> George
>
>
>
> "Dr. Ghastly" wrote:
> >
> > Actually, thier OS software sales sells at a loss. They make money on thier
> > Office and other software, such as MSSQL 2000
> >
> > So selling thier OS at a substantially lower price would just hurt them
> > more, and is still an anti-trust violation stemming back fromt he days of
> > Rockefeller selling at a loss (on purpose) to drive other companies out of
> > busniess.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Lee Einer" <appealsman@cox.net>
> > To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 6:08 PM
> > Subject: Re: Steve Ballmer's bogus threat
> >
> > > Hi, Kim-
> > >
> > > They (MS, the Tyrants of Redmond,
> > > etc) could attempt such a thing,
> > > but I think that if they tried it,
> > > even under the present
> > > business-friendly administration,
> > > the Department of Justice would
> > > hand MS their own procreative parts
> > > on a hotdog bun (please God, let me
> > > live to see it...)
> > >
> > > I think there is also a limited
> > > extent to which a business can ask
> > > it's customers to waive their legal
> > > rights- subscription or no, such
> > > things are subject to judicial
> > > review, tests of reasonableness,
> > > etc.
> > >
> > > Anyway, give it six months or a
> > > year, and see. Even if Microsoft
> > > takes it on the chin in this
> > > anti-trust suit, they will still be
> > > selling the Windows OS, under any
> > > conditions they have to abide by,
> > > because it's the closest thing they
> > > have to a stranglehold on the
> > > software market. They certainly
> > > can't make ends meet by selling
> > > their Office suite or their
> > > browser...
> > >
> > > IMHO, anyway. Time will tell :-)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Lee Einer
> > >
> > > http://members.cox.net/appealsman/
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