ECO 365 week 4 Differentiating Between Market structures

     Relatively speaking, Microsoft uses many of the same strategies for its promotions as Sony and Nintendo.

Microsoft has developed into an inescapable force within the technological field. Coming from a delayed humble beginning, it has had to devote large sums of money to approach the levels of the founding technological companies. Today, Microsoft controls the market in computer software. How they have achieved this status is what some have come to question. Through “bundling” software programs, manipulating other computer companies, and packaging deals with personal computers, Microsoft has managed to eradicate nearly all competitors in the computer software market (Love, 1997). This near monopoly affects the entire spectrum of classes, including the consumer, other networking providers,

Differentiation strategy is generally reserved for companies with a clear competitive advantage. Companies such as Mercedes and Apple employ this strategy. Differentiation strategy is demonstrated when a company provides value to customers through unique unique features and characteristics of a company's products rather than by the lowest price (Open Learning World 2010).

User Profile-Microsoft company have a huge target market, the service they provide from daily office operation to home entertainment. The user of Microsoft mostly are who have basic knowledge on

Windows, a program that was created in 1983, but did not change the market significantly until 1990, has grown to control 94.1% of the operating system market (Newman). This has required other companies in the software industry to make all of their applications Windows compatible. Critics claim that Microsoft systematically eliminated all competition of other operating systems and software manufacturers. Microsoft also controls a large part of the software industry. According to sales from April 2002, Microsoft sold 89% of office software to consumers (Washington Post). Microsoft bundles these applications with the Windows operating system, which is, according to them, an effective technique. Critics assert that this forces other makers of office software, like Corel, to lose business, because consumers will not buy another application if one is already pre-installed. Critics point to the proposed 1995 merger between Microsoft and Inuit which ultimately failed. Inuit is the maker of the best-selling money management

Microsoft’s policy enables competition between PC producers resulting in lower prices. This also causes stratification of the PCs resulting in low-end, average, and luxury versions.

Kudler Fine Foods is the brain child of Kathy Kudler. She envisioned a one stop gourmet food store and has grown to three locations to date. She continues to maintain direct control over large bulk purchase order items, stringent customer service policies, and hiring. This paper discusses how the organization competes in the marketplace and the strengths and weaknesses of the company according to the marketing surveys their customers completed. The following also discusses which market structure best applies to the organization and how that structure positively and negatively affects the firm, how the effectiveness of the competitive strategies in the market structure affect the

Market structure is the physical characteristics of the market within which companies react. This means that there are different kinds of market structure based on how companies work together within a particular industry. Location and product have the most to do with determining the market structure. There are four defined market types. The first market structure is called the perfectly competitive market. The second market is called a monopoly market structure. The third market is called monopolistic competition market structure. The final market is called oligopoly market structure. Each market structure is different and both benefits and disadvantages

The main empirical claim opposing sides disagree on is that Microsoft is deliberately trying to shut out its competitors in the software industry. While this issue might seem like a matter of opinion, there is hard evidence to back it up. The most striking example of Microsoft shutting out its competitors is with its Internet Explorer software. In 1997, Microsoft packaged an Internet Explorer Access Kit with Windows, thus shutting out Netscape, who did not create a similar service until nine months later. Unfortunately, purchasing the software from Netscape would cost $2000, whereas the service was free from Microsoft. To make matters even more interesting, Microsoft struck a deal with AOL where in exchange for using its Internet software, “Microsoft placed an AOL icon on its Windows desktop, leading more than a million new customers to sign up for AOL” (FAQ). Microsoft supporters assert that this service “increased general familiarity with the Internet and reduced the cost to the public of gaining access to it” (FAQ). However, critics suggest that Microsoft intentionally add the Internet Explorer feature to Windows in order to shut Netscape out the industry. Additionally, because Microsoft is so wealthy and powerful, it can be a hazard to the economy and consumers. If Microsoft ever crashed there would be complete economic chaos. Also, Microsoft controls the prices of their products and could decide to raise them at any time. Consumers would be forced

     Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems that if it wished to exercise this power solely in terms of price, it could charge a price for Windows substantially above that which could be

“Microsoft’s share of the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems is extremely large and stable,” 2. “Microsoft’s dominant market share is protected by a high barrier of entry,” 3. “Microsoft’s

Microsoft is a highly diversified company. Its technologically-related products span from software to music players to game consoles to web browsers to search engines to phones. However, its flagship product, the product which has been the primary driver of its profits has been Microsoft Windows, the ubiquitous operating system that runs on virtually every computer in the world. Windows has been deemed so critical that even Microsoft's competitor Apple was effectively forced by market pressures to allow its Macs to run Windows, in an effort to boost sales. "As astounding as Apple's success has been, it hasn't put a dent in the Microsoft Office monopoly. [Current CEO] Ballmer and company still profit on every Macbook running Word, Excel and PowerPoint" (Greg 2012).But while Microsoft continues to make its highly profitable Windows products (despite industry criticism about its user features); it has struggled to diversify in its many critical areas, most notable in its music, phones, and Internet service.

Microsoft has been fighting competitors in the Operating System fields as well as the Search field for many years. After Apple launched its new Macintosh computer, Microsoft came out with its first production of Windows which had a graphic user interface. Microsoft had 95% of all OS on individual PC’s in the 2000’s where apple only had about 2%-3% (Rivkin 2). A new venture that Microsoft was working toward was application software where the produced Microsoft Word and Excel. At first these two applications where not very popular on PC computers because WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 where the main applications being run. Microsoft’s solution to this competition was

Looking at the sizable market share Microsoft has come to enjoy over the years, a new competitor would face a number of entry barriers before entering this market. Customers are very loyal to the Microsoft brand and would expect any competitor to offer at the very least the same features that Microsoft already has.

After many advancements in technology over the past years, the possibility of integrating the technology into the education system for the use of students has increased. Schools have started to spend more on resourceful technology such as iPads, tablets, Chromebooks, and a few other items. IPads have been proven to be far superior than most of these gadgets. iPads have been rolled out in many schools due to their weight size speed and the ability to use easily. iPads can impact the school in many positive ways. Some counter-arguments could be that they are too expensive or they can break easily. Although a few reasons why they should be used in schools are that their shape, size, weight can