In the early 1990s people scoffed at the idea that IBM wasn't relevant any more, and yet, despite having a huge lock on PC sales, every year their market share got trimmed back. 5% here, 3% there, it adds up to complete irrelevance.
Nowhere near comparable. IBM succumbed to competition for PCs. There is still no competition for a PC operating system.
The PC manufacturers can have a race to the bottom all they like, and Microsoft will still continue to rake in the profits. While consumers are extremely price sensitive when buying PCs, wreaking havoc on the old guard of the industry, they're still buying an awful lot of PCs in the aggregate. Microsoft profits from each one.
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In the early 1990s people scoffed at the idea that IBM wasn't relevant any more, and yet, despite having a huge lock on PC sales, every year their market share got trimmed back. 5% here, 3% there, it adds up to complete irrelevance.
They don't even have a PC division any more.
Nowhere near comparable. IBM succumbed to competition for PCs. There is still no competition for a PC operating system.
The PC manufacturers can have a race to the bottom all they like, and Microsoft will still continue to rake in the profits. While consumers are extremely price sensitive when buying PCs, wreaking havoc on the old guard of the industry, they're still buying an awful lot of PCs in the aggregate. Microsoft profits from each one.