Bill Gates

Yeah, they were getting counter-positioned in mobile. I mean, Google was saying, we'll give it to you free.

Yeah, they were getting counter-positioned in mobile. I mean, Google was saying, we'll give it to you free.

Yeah. All right, perhaps the single greatest asset they have is scale economies. With the number of users and customers they have, any investment that they make gets amortized over such a massive user base that it's worth it. If they can charge a dollar more on EAs, they should do almost any amount of incremental R&D or acquisitions.

Yeah. All right, perhaps the single greatest asset they have is scale economies. With the number of users and customers they have, any investment that they make gets amortized over such a massive user base that it's worth it. If they can charge a dollar more on EAs, they should do almost any amount of incremental R&D or acquisitions.

Yeah, the cloud era even more. I think there's crazy returns to scale on cloud economics.

Yeah, the cloud era even more. I think there's crazy returns to scale on cloud economics.

Yeah, they went from knowing how to ship the most beloved operating system of all time with Windows 95, managing to pretty much do it again, even during the antitrust thing with Windows XP, with, I think, zero blunders in between. I mean, they had ME, but that wasn't a blunder as much as like a, I don't know, fresh coat of paint that wasn't really real.

Yeah, they went from knowing how to ship the most beloved operating system of all time with Windows 95, managing to pretty much do it again, even during the antitrust thing with Windows XP, with, I think, zero blunders in between. I mean, they had ME, but that wasn't a blunder as much as like a, I don't know, fresh coat of paint that wasn't really real.

And then, yeah, with Longhorn and Windows 8, separate problems, but completely forgot why those franchises have economic value.

And then, yeah, with Longhorn and Windows 8, separate problems, but completely forgot why those franchises have economic value.

Yeah, the question is, did they become more trusted by the enterprise, where if you're offered the exact same service from Microsoft and AWS, are you more willing to pay Microsoft for it?

Yeah, the question is, did they become more trusted by the enterprise, where if you're offered the exact same service from Microsoft and AWS, are you more willing to pay Microsoft for it?

Yeah. Microsoft has unbelievable switching costs. The EA, you just can't switch now. You have to switch sometime in the future. And when that time comes, you're probably not going to switch then either because the next EA is going to offer even more value.

Yeah. Microsoft has unbelievable switching costs. The EA, you just can't switch now. You have to switch sometime in the future. And when that time comes, you're probably not going to switch then either because the next EA is going to offer even more value.

Yep, you're so right. It's so funny you reflected it back to the DOJ. It's been so long now since we covered that. Hours ago, I kind of forgot about it. In that era, there were literal switching costs to getting a different browser.

Yep, you're so right. It's so funny you reflected it back to the DOJ. It's been so long now since we covered that. Hours ago, I kind of forgot about it. In that era, there were literal switching costs to getting a different browser.

The one that came with your computer was the one you were going to use because a different browser was going to take like five to 24 hours to download over your internet connection in the dial-up days. It was good for consumers to receive a browser with their computer because getting another one was almost prohibitively difficult.

The one that came with your computer was the one you were going to use because a different browser was going to take like five to 24 hours to download over your internet connection in the dial-up days. It was good for consumers to receive a browser with their computer because getting another one was almost prohibitively difficult.

Network economies. It's actually a little thin.

Network economies. It's actually a little thin.