> -----Original Message----- [...] > > MSN's big advantage is (of course) user-base. Microsoft built up a user > base in a way that only someone with a monopoly on computer operating > systems could ;-) However, I've seen numbers in the past that indicate > their userbase has significantly lower usage by percentage than the > other three main portal IM systems; I figure this is because people set > up an MSN account when they set up their computer not knowing what it > is, or wanting to use it. The client then just logs in and stays silent > in their tooltray whenever they connect to the internet. > > -David Wait Max Metral wrote: > I think it's overly simplistic to suggest that Microsoft's monopoly is > the reason they grew their userbase so well.
Sorry, I would (IMHO) disagree on this. I think MSN wins from ICQ, Yahoo Messenger/Jabber the same way Internet Explorer "won" from Netscape: Internet Explorer was pre-installed with Windows '95 (or was it '98?). Why would people need another browser? Then, later on, you could get a free hotmail e-mail account (like me, I got my e-mail before I knew about the "hype" MSN Messenger). A lot of people didn't knew about MSN Messenger or a passport. In windows Me, MSN is pre-installed... "hmm, I can use my e-mail adres to chat, well, I'll give it a try"... > MSN Messenger is BY FAR a better client for the majority of Internet > users than any of ours, and arguably better than AOL. I think I must agree on this one: MSN Messenger doesn't have the overfeatered ICQ-style, but still offers good, usable features. > They are also a LOT more "open" than AOL and Yahoo, even if not > formally. If anyone had a monopoly here, it was/is AOL, and they are > trying to weild it as much as they can. A year from now, when MSN has > made their client an also ran, AOL and their cronies will go crying to > the Fed that MSFT bullied them, when what really happened is that AOL > acted like a bunch of babies trying to block and close off all > other-client access and stop all interesting application development > on their platform. The question for us is which camp are we going to > be in, the ones who bitch about msft or the ones who embrace and > extend the embracers-and-extenders. Sorry, English isn't my native language, what do you mean with "the ones who embrace and extend the embracers-and-extenders?". > We do have the advantages you state, and the more we make ourselves > play nice with the major clients, the better those advantages seem > because they won't have the disadvantages of not playing with MSN Ebay > alerts (for example). Sorry, but what are MSN Ebay alerts? > Us bashing MSFT is sort of like the Red Sox bashing the Yankees. If > we had won more in the last 80 years, we wouldn't care about the damn > Yankees. :) .m. _______________________________________________ jdev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.jabber.org/listinfo/jdev
