One of the sad things about the computer market, is that the euphoria it produces, causes people to ignore the ongoing fundamentals of the market. People also tend to believe the lessons of markets past, do not apply to this market. Take Open Source software. Open Source software dramatically drives the price of software downwards to zero. By itself, Open Source software is relatively benign, since small to medium sized companies cannot really introduce it to a market and survive - since they wouldn't be able to make money off of it. However, if a large company introduces it, and propels it through the market, that company can decimate the market, since smaller players would find it impossible to compete. We now have an increasingly common practice, where large companies introduce Open Source or other free software into markets, as a means of luring customers to products or services it charges money for, which leaves destroyed smaller companies in their wakes.
Starting from the 1990s, when IBM began supporting Linux, large companies have promulgated Open Source and other free software throughout markets, devastating those markets. IBM's initial support of Linux and its distribution, eliminated small UNIX vendors from the landscape, then increasingly consumed the whole UNIX market, to the point where it is a fraction of what it once was. Linux drove value, jobs, taxes, etc. out of the computer market. Fortunately the computer market grew in other areas to offset the devastation of Linux. The current problem is that Google introduced Android into the consumer market, and is trying to promulgate it everywhere. Like Linux, Android is Open Source / free software, and has quickly driven value out of software in the consumer market. Today, the intrinsic value of software has plummeted to zero or near zero. Android's halo effect has also driven value out of computer hardware, where manufacturers other than Apple, make ultra thin margins - if they make any profit at all. Microsoft doesn't appear to realize this, but its Windows 8 plans are in crisis, because there is virtually no economic potential for making money building Windows 8 apps. Why? Because the prices developers are able to get, cannot sustain the overwhelming majority of businesses.
What can the industry do? Have regulators come down hard on monopolies like Google and groups of large companies, that promulgate Open Source / free software in markets, which destroy prices and devastate small companies. These large companies are guilty of classic antitrust price cutting, which forecloses competition. If something is not done quickly, not only will MS' Windows ecosystem unravel, but so will the whole horizontal small / medium business sector, of the computer industry.
Starting from the 1990s, when IBM began supporting Linux, large companies have promulgated Open Source and other free software throughout markets, devastating those markets. IBM's initial support of Linux and its distribution, eliminated small UNIX vendors from the landscape, then increasingly consumed the whole UNIX market, to the point where it is a fraction of what it once was. Linux drove value, jobs, taxes, etc. out of the computer market. Fortunately the computer market grew in other areas to offset the devastation of Linux. The current problem is that Google introduced Android into the consumer market, and is trying to promulgate it everywhere. Like Linux, Android is Open Source / free software, and has quickly driven value out of software in the consumer market. Today, the intrinsic value of software has plummeted to zero or near zero. Android's halo effect has also driven value out of computer hardware, where manufacturers other than Apple, make ultra thin margins - if they make any profit at all. Microsoft doesn't appear to realize this, but its Windows 8 plans are in crisis, because there is virtually no economic potential for making money building Windows 8 apps. Why? Because the prices developers are able to get, cannot sustain the overwhelming majority of businesses.
What can the industry do? Have regulators come down hard on monopolies like Google and groups of large companies, that promulgate Open Source / free software in markets, which destroy prices and devastate small companies. These large companies are guilty of classic antitrust price cutting, which forecloses competition. If something is not done quickly, not only will MS' Windows ecosystem unravel, but so will the whole horizontal small / medium business sector, of the computer industry.