By contrast, a player is your competitor if customers value your product less when they have the other player's product than when they have yours alone. The idea of complementors is most easily illustrated in hardware and software. For example, one of Intel's big challenges is that existing software applications do not push the limits of microprocessors, restricting demand for the company's next-generation chip. So it is heavily subsidising a desktop videoconferencing system to boost sales of more powerful chips. Businesses often say you should stick to your knitting.
People think it is a euphemism for cartel.
We don't mean it that way,' says Nalebuff. Others may feel that the description of the book as 'a revolutionary mindset that combines competition and co-operation' is an exaggeration. At a time when companies are entering alliances with competitors as never before, the advantages of co-operation are already widely known. The duality between competition and co-operation seems to strike a real chord,' he says. Unlike many fads, it does not offer slogans to be taken at face value, says Nalebuff.