Stardate 20010706.0645 (On Screen): This article discusses the fact that Microsoft not only licenses the entire PocketPC package to makers of PDAs, but also licenses the WinCE core. The author speculates that this may be a mistake.
It's not Microsoft's fault that this author clearly doesn't understand marketing. Microsoft knows full well what it is doing, and this move is completely consistent with 15 years of Microsoft marketing practice. Microsoft recognized early on that the software business runs best at very high volumes, but that to get to that point you have to take the long view. This is more of the same. It is true that in the short run this has the potential for causing a slight decline in Microsoft's licensing revenue, but that's not important. What is important is for Microsoft to gain the same position with regard to PDAs as it now holds for desktop computers.
In other words, Microsoft isn't trying now to make money. It's trying to kill Palm. (And it's going to succeed, too.) From the point of view of Microsoft, it's better to make $10 each off of a product volume of 100 million units per year, ten years from now, then it is to make $50 each off of a product volume of 2 million units per year, now. (discuss)
