Wal-Mart to Subsidize Competition
So sayeth an article this week in The New York Times. That's bizarre.
Clearly the public relations work of the anti-Wal-Mart faction (of which I number myself) is having some impact when Wal-Mart is giving money and advertising away to competitors. However, I have no illusions that this changes their business model or that Wal-Mart now wants to compete in a healthy economic ecosystem.
Clearly the public relations work of the anti-Wal-Mart faction (of which I number myself) is having some impact when Wal-Mart is giving money and advertising away to competitors. However, I have no illusions that this changes their business model or that Wal-Mart now wants to compete in a healthy economic ecosystem.
5 Comments:
Similar to why Microsoft makes Mac compatible software.
Not the same. Micro$oft is penetrating a different market there. They're making money off Mac users. Wal-Mart, in this case, is giving money away.
"The current arrangement between Microsoft and Apple dates back to 1997. As part of what amounted to the settlement of lawsuits Apple had filed against Microsoft--and was winning--Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple and promised to continue developing Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and development tools for Mac OS until August 2002."
ZDNet News: January 29, 2002
Are they really there to make money or to prevent an anti-trust lawsuit?
I hadn't realized that (clearly). What of the last 4 years? With Apple's resurgence, it seems like a money-making proposition these days.
With Apple's resurgence and penetrance of the online-music market, as well as switching to an Intel platform, Microsoft is no longer as willing to continue to develop OS X compatible products, and there is some talk of dropping support for existing Microsoft OS X products (a la Internet Explorer). Not that I like it, just that there are a lot of websites that don't work right with other browsers.
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