I liked the model being discussed here. But I put the companies in very different spots, which I found to be a distraction. Microsoft is one of the key example

I liked the model being discussed here. But I put the companies in very different spots, which I found to be a distraction. Microsoft is one of the key example used. In their heyday they were deeply integrated. They had the whole stack and they sold it enterprise-level and enterprise-wide. Companies where "Microsoft shops" for this reason. This philosophy was one the the reasons Microsoft was late to the Internet party. I also disagree deeply that "Facebook could lose all of its third party content providers overnight and still be a compelling service." Equally on that spectrum Facebook is right next to Google. Who surely couldn't lose all their third party content overnight?