____/ BearItAll on Saturday 10 November 2007 10:55 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>>
>> Microsoft's Dirty OEM-Secret
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | They are, in short the secret to Microsoft's success. And the word
>> | secret is to be taken quite literally: No OEM may talk about the
>> | contents of his contract, or he will lose his license, and (assumption)
>> | likely be sued for breach of contract as well.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/10/23/13219/110
>>
>
> This is the one I have difficulty with.
>
> OEM was a great idea from a buisiness point of view. If Novell, Apple, ZX
> Spectrum or anyone else had thought of it first they would have done it. If
> they had something worth buying that is, because even with OEM, the people
> have to want it or it would have failed, maybe taking those who signed up
> to it with them too.
>
> Then secrets between each company that signed up, is just normal buisiness.
>
> Our buisiness has maybe 250 regular customers, each makes a deal with their
> representative for a price, some have a price mark up via their online
> accounts, others only work through the reps or sales desk. But each
> customer has a mark up that gives them a price benefit from the base price
> of the products.
>
> If they ever saw that list, i.e. what they competitors pay, then we would be
> in trouble. It has to be kept a closely guarded secret, for their sakes as
> well as ours. As it happens we have experienced this, a disgruntled
> (sacked) sales Rep mass mailed it out a few years ago, it was pure luck
> that he made the mistake of emailing the spreadsheets, the data that it
> linked to didn't go out with it, so customers were asking why we had sent
> them blank spreadsheets. But it was a close thing.
>
> Many buisinesses work with this markup policy.
>
> MS will have given the best prices to those who are likely to sell the most
> computers. Dell probably got the best markup, Bob's PC shop just off the
> high street of your local town, will have got the worst markup, because his
> volume is low. Everyone else would be somewhere in between.
What about those other posts about Microsoft threatening to 'whack' Dell? What
happens when a wealthy(ier) company uses the depth of its pockets to run its
competitor out of employees, R&D, and therefore business. Capitalism without
any regulation is a nice idea in theory, but it doesn't work in practice. Even
in the UK, look at the number of duopolies and monopolies. Do 'Aunties'
and 'Uncles' really deliver better value? It's just market complacency, not
competition. In Microsoft's case, it's like a baboon inside a cage with many
baby chimps.
--
~~ Best of wishes
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