3 ms·

...and lawyers, and legislation, and patent portfolio, and many other events that doesn't even touch a "free market". You do know that at the moment the US gov

by yardie 12y ago

...and lawyers, and legislation, and patent portfolio, and many other events that doesn't even touch a "free market". You do know that at the moment the US gov't is deciding if 2 or 3 national ISPs is enough competition. Where are all the other upstarts? Effectively locked out. How? If you showed up early enough you were subsidised in deploying infrastructure. If you showed up a little late that is no longer an option to you. So yes, continue being naive about how those market forces rely exclusively on cash.

rayiner 12y ago
We have one maybe two widely used search engines. One or two social networks dominate the landscape. The third mobile OS is a distant competitor to the main two. Two cell phone companies make almost all the profits in that industry. Until recently, one processor manufacturer dominated the consumer sector, with a competitor that it had to prop up for apperances' sake. Did Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and legislation to achieve victory? Proponents of startups who also believe in the market have to deal with a certain cognitive dissonance. They have to convince themselves that giant corporations can only win through non-market means. But the fact is that the market almost always favors scale. Apple and Samsung win not through suing "upstarts" for patent infringement, but through the kind of vertical integration only possible with scale. If you can spend $2 billion on a factory to make sapphire glass screens at a price point the "upstarts" can't match, then you win, through purely market means. If you're Verizon and can spend billions to have LTE coverage everywhere in the country, that's what leads you to dominance over the upstarts, not the regulatory regime. Go back to before the modern regulatory state. Did Standard Oil and U.S. Steel lawyer themselves to victory? No, they did the same thing Apple and Samsung are doing: dominate the competition by leveraging scale.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  Did Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and legislation to achieve victory? Sort of, don't know, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Page rank patent, ???, lawsuits on patent/copyright/look-and-feel against clones and competitors, instruction set patents, one-click patent, anti-competitive OEM contracts and more.
ams6110 12y ago
Two or three choices would be more than I have now. I can choose Comcast or nothing.

by yardie 12y ago

rayiner 12y ago

We have one maybe two widely used search engines. One or two social networks dominate the landscape. The third mobile OS is a distant competitor to the main two. Two cell phone companies make almost all the profits in that industry. Until recently, one processor manufacturer dominated the consumer sector, with a competitor that it had to prop up for apperances' sake. Did Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and legislation to achieve victory? Proponents of startups who also believe in the market have to deal with a certain cognitive dissonance. They have to convince themselves that giant corporations can only win through non-market means. But the fact is that the market almost always favors scale. Apple and Samsung win not through suing "upstarts" for patent infringement, but through the kind of vertical integration only possible with scale. If you can spend $2 billion on a factory to make sapphire glass screens at a price point the "upstarts" can't match, then you win, through purely market means. If you're Verizon and can spend billions to have LTE coverage everywhere in the country, that's what leads you to dominance over the upstarts, not the regulatory regime. Go back to before the modern regulatory state. Did Standard Oil and U.S. Steel lawyer themselves to victory? No, they did the same thing Apple and Samsung are doing: dominate the competition by leveraging scale.

nitrogen 12y ago
Did Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and legislation to achieve victory? Sort of, don't know, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Page rank patent, ???, lawsuits on patent/copyright/look-and-feel against clones and competitors, instruction set patents, one-click patent, anti-competitive OEM contracts and more.

ams6110 12y ago

Two or three choices would be more than I have now. I can choose Comcast or nothing.