Is Microsoft a Monopoly Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Is Microsoft a Monopoly - Research Paper ExampleBefore drawing any conclusions about Microsoft organism a monopoly, we must starting time understand what a monopoly really is. A pure monopoly exists when there is a single supplier (Grant). In another comment monopoly is defined as the only supplier of a good for which there are no close substitutes (Perloff). From the above 2 definitions of monopoly it is safe to assume two characteristics that a firm must possess to be called a monopoly1. Sole supplier variations may exist regarding the context of the sole supplier. In case of a pure monopoly there will be only ane firm in the industry, meaning that the firm is the industry. It can also mean that there is one major firm with nearly the whole market place power and other small firms have negligible share of the market that they can be ignored. found on the two definitions I believe that Microsoft is not a monopoly. Firstly we must establish the industry, before labeling Microsof t a monopoly. If we consider the software industry thusly Microsoft is definitely not a monopoly. The software industry is huge with a diverse range of software ranging from OS software in which Microsoft holds a grand market share to medical software where Microsoft has no market share. The fact is that before classifying a firms position in the industry first the industry needs to be defined.If we consider the first attribute then Microsoft is not the single supplier even in the OS industry, where it holds considerable market share. It faces competition from Android OS for tablet computers, Linux, Oracle, Xerox, DEC, Psion, Apples OS which is found in most Apple machines, and iOS, Apples OS for iPad and iPhones. in that respect are some other OS that are developed on little known platforms, some of the most notable of these OS are Haiku for IA-32 platform, reduced instruction set computing OS for ARM platform, MorphOS for Pegasos, EFIKA and Amiga platforms. Although these OS a re in the market, Microsoft is the industry