Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!wuarchive!udel!sbcs!ameristar!rick
From: rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community.
Message-ID: <1990Jun9.032608.3529@ameristar>
Date: 9 Jun 90 03:26:08 GMT
References: <1990Jun3.163532.12083@ameristar> <12779@netcom.UUCP> <1377@madnix.UUCP>
Organization: Ameristar Technology, Inc
Lines: 42

(Sorry Chuck, the horse isn't dead yet :-) )

In article <1377@madnix.UUCP> perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz) writes:

	[ text deleted ]

>In  the  above,  lies the theory we hit on a long time ago which helps keep
>ASDG's doors open.  That is:  Escalate far beyond your competitor's ability
>to counter.  

	Good advice as usual, Perry.  I would like to add that the
	performance/feature highground isn't the sole answer all the
	time.  Cases in point are companies who might invest a great
	deal of research or development time setting up standards,
	defining a market, building new technology, etc.  There are
	companies that build the latest instantiation of a stereo
	receiver with all the trendy features and there is also
	the company that invented the original technology.  Both
	deserve their position in the marketplace.  Patents are
	part of the answer at least for protection from competitors.
	But does a patent offer protection from HackerDudes?
	
>In  general,  the easier as application is to knock off, the more likely it
>will  be  knocked  off.  As you get to more sophisticated applications, the
>less likely it is that you will face PD (or any other) competition.

	The reservation I have with this point, though it is certainly a
	correct observation, is that one is setting up a situation where
	you're running a race against a opponent with a different resource
	profile than you're operating under.  In cases where you code better, 
	faster, have superior access to resources/information, etc than the 
	PD community can then you win.  Otherwise, you're Unipress emacs vs 
	GNU emacs.  Generally speaking though, I agree:  the more unique, hard 
	to reproduce components any product encompasses, the safer its 
	position against all competitors be they commercial or otherwise.  
	Our networking products have all encompassed some unique or hard to
	reproduce aspects that made them difficult to clone functionally.

>Perry Kivolowitz, ASDG Inc.

				Rick Spanbauer
				Ameristar Technology