Forced to use everyday for most functions across many jobs=power. Still though, my thesis is that monopolies like MSFT haven’t just faded away because internet/mobile as per your first tweet. World’s biggest company! Everyone I talk to hates their products. No choice.
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Replying to @zeynep @raphacaixeta and
As to my previous point - I am totally baffled by this position, and see no rational basis for it. In the previous their you cited market cap as though that was power, which I cannot comprehend. And here too - this is a really narrow definition of power.
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Replying to @benedictevans @zeynep and
What industry standards does Microsoft set? What leverage does it ahed over other companies? Can it control what a startup does? Do people worry what it will do? Cn it put anyone out of business? Can it charge monopoly prices? 2/3
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Replying to @benedictevans @zeynep and
Saying 'I have to use Office therefore they have power' is like saying the tax office has to use mainframes therefore IBM has power. That's one product. It's not power/dominance/control/fear in the tech industry. I don't see how you don't see this. 3/3
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Replying to @benedictevans @raphacaixeta and
IBM has legacy business that’s fading. (That it endured this long again shows tenacity of monopoly). MSFT isn’t fading. What startup has a chance at the enterprise stuff Microsoft dominates? Only Google seems to kinda compete. Many millions of stuck users seems pretty big to me.
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Replying to @zeynep @raphacaixeta and
What chance does a startup have at the mainframe business where IBM dominates? Who cares?! It's not where power sits any more, and it's not where you set the agenda. This is just conflating being big with relevance.
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Replying to @benedictevans @raphacaixeta and
Who uses mainframes? Banks, airlines etc. and they get rid of them as fast as they can. That is indeed fading the way you describe. MSFT isn’t fading and is in the lives of maybe billions of people everyday. I don’t think it’s analogous to IBM.
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Replying to @zeynep @raphacaixeta and
IBM's mainframe installed base went up 8x between 2000 and 2010. IBM remained a very big business for a long time after it stoppped being the centre of tech. Now, Microsoft remains a big business a long time after it stopped being the centre of tech. The power is gone.
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Replying to @benedictevans @raphacaixeta and
Wouldn’t you have said that also a decade ago and surprised to see it be world’s biggest company still? I guess we circle back in ten years. What’s happening is bigger lanes have opened, sure. IBM lost its lane, except as legacy. Not really so Microsoft in enterprise.
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Replying to @zeynep @benedictevans
I think
@zeynep and@benedictevans should make a podcast together. How amazing would that be?
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I think we’re both long more form writers who find Twitter frustrating at times. 
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