From: lowell@locus.com (Lowell Morrison)
Subject: Re: FCC will proclaim Microsoft is run by Communists! : )
Organization: Locus Computing Corp, Los Angeles
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 23:43:15 GMT

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: FCC will proclaim Microsoft is run by Communists! : )
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Organization: Locus Computing Corp, Los Angeles
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In article <28DEC199213292659@moose.cccs.umn.edu> rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu writes:
>In article <rhoward.725158911@matd>, rhoward@matd.gatech.edu (Robert L. Howard) writes:
>> moncrg@aix02.ecs.rpi.edu (Gregory Donald Moncreaff) writes:
>>  
>> >In article <1992Dec22.234828.0203999@locus.com> lowell@locus.com (Lowell Morrison) writes:
>> >>
>> >>Or perhaps, I already own DOS N.n, I have to pony up $50 for an upgrade
>> >>that these systems resellers get for $10, gee, I think I just got
>> >>gouged.  Again, I ain't happy with Microsoft.  Of course, it is far
>> >>cheaper for me to pirate it, but then I am allowing M$ to force me
>> >>to become a criminal.  I ain't happy with that state of affairs again.
>> >>
>> >its probably a lot cheaper for microsoft to ship 1000 copies to one
>> >location than 1 copie to each of a thousand locations, therefore its
>> >cheaper if you order lots of them. (ever heard of volume discounts??)
>>  
>> So in other words, when I go to Egghead I buy their only copy of
>> DOS, then they call Redmond directly and order *1* copy to replace
>> it?  Come-on, Egghead probably sells more DOS than many clone makers.
>>  
>> Why can't Egghead get it for $10 a copy and under-cut everyone
>> else by selling it for $20?  The point is that the $10 copies
>> go to capture a market, the $50 copies go to people that already
>> want it.  Sort of how drug pushers work as a matter of fact....
>
>Probably because Egghead doesn't want to have to produce its own diskettes
>and manuals that way that Gateway, Zeos, et al do when they distribute their
>licensed copies of DOS. Buy a Gateway computer.  You'll get Gateway disks
>for Windows and a Gateway manual for Windows published by Gateway; although,
>I suspect that the actual material for the manual is provided as part of
>the license.  If you're looking for a company that OEMs software to keep
>prices low, check out DAK.
>
>Actually, price discrimination is the way most markets work. Why do you think
>that the hardcover version of a book is 5 times as expensive as the paperback
>that comes out a year later.  Its not because of the binding costs :-) Its
>because some people are willing to pay a premium to read the book now.
>
>--rick
>


Yep, but then the $10 price, plus a $5 book (I have several of the Gateway
manuals on my shelf) is a great deal for a $120+ list product.  No other
deal that I know of has a 8 to 1 price advantage between what I can buy
a new installation retail, and get it with the machine.

Your Book example is an incorrect usage of the example.  If I buy a book
from a vendor (discount priced) and find that I could get if for a 10th
the price from another retail vendor, then the DA in LA will close the 
first one down for Fraud.  (Non-delivery of goods at a reasonable 
value, sort of like having some one resurface my drive way by coating
it with oil).  This is not to say that Microsoft is guilty of fraud,
that is what the FTC and courts will decide.

These Distinctions are of course legal fictions, but the general sense
that I take home is that when some currently shipping product (DAK is
selling the former versions) is sold for considerable less that 50%
of the retail, then something is rotten in Denmark.

--Lowell Morrison
--Uncle Wolf

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy