"Reginald P. Smithers III" "Reggie is Here wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
wrote in message
...


It is not just Microsoft, adobe is the same way. There are now PDFs
all over the internet that you can't open with a version of the reader
that runs on W98, yet it is still just a picture of a page. Where is
the increased value ... other than making software companies a little
richer.



Hmmmm... With that logic, the automobile industry should have stopped
with
the model "T".

Eisboch


If the actual benefit to the customer didn't improve they should have
kept building model Ts. Probably why they did for 18 years.
Creating a new format that is not backward compatible, simply because
they can is pure greed.


It's also how companies stay in business.

Eisboch

That only is accurate if they make a superior product than the
competition. If MS continues to make a product that the consumer is not
happy with, it opens the door for serious competition.


That wasn't my point. My point was that in order to grow and stay in
business, an established company has to come out with new, better, and
supposedly improved products. If they don't, the company goes flat once
their initial product saturates the market.

Polaroid had a unique marketing scheme to deal with this. They would
introduce a high end instant camera and sell it for big bucks until sales
dropped. Then, they would re-package the same camera in a cheaper housing
and sell it at a lower price. Once that product saturated, it would be
introduced again in a "really" cheap housing, maybe minus a feature or two
and sold at a bargain price.

How much of what you use today with respect to computer software or hardware
is backwards compatible to your first computer?
When was the last time you used a 5-1/4" floppy?

Eisboch