Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Economists who laugh last...

At the old 'applications barrier to entry' theory, which was one of the main complaints in the anti-trust case of the (late) 20th century, US v. Microsoft.

Remember the glory days of Gary Reback ('all progress will come to a halt'), Paul David (Clio and the Economics of QWERTY) and Brian Arthur ('lock-in by historical accident'), Thomas Penfield Jackson (“the amount it would cost an operating system vendor to create [70,000] applications is prohibitively large.”)?

That was yesterday's news...the worm has turned...the bloom is off the rose...old hat...it disappeared almost as fast as a St. Louis Cardinal lead in a playoff series;

As Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 8 at a media event Thursday in New York, getting developers to create apps for the operating system is one of the biggest questions hovering over the company. It's particularly crucial to the success of Windows RT, the Windows 8 version designed to run on ARM-based tablets competing directly with Apple's iPad.
Unlike Windows 8 machines, devices running Windows RT will not be able to run legacy or desktop Windows apps (other than the Office suite that comes with the devices). Rather, customers will have to rely on apps available only through the online Windows Store.
"Without stellar apps, Windows RT is a machine that runs Office and a Web browser," said Wes Miller, an analyst with independent research firm Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland. But "if developers build the apps, that's what drives the platform."
Laugh heartily, Stan and Steve. You earned the right.

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