Massachusetts markets its demand for software
Tags: Microsoft, OpenOffice, Office, Marketing
One of the interesting marketing campaigns going on nowdays is on the demand side. An article at PC World notes that Massachusetts is now formally notifying vendors that it will only accept software that supports open XML-based document standards. In essence, they are marketing their requirements to software vendors. Of course, Microsoft is quite annoyed by this, but it is one of the few recent examples of demand-side marketing I've seen.
As an aside, here's a bit of trivia for readers. Everyone knows what a monopoly is, but does anyone know what a monopsony is? It is a market with only one dominant buyer, just as a monopoly is a market with only one dominant seller. Governments are often monopsonies for many types of services and products, which is one of the reasons this move by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is so interesting. This could be the tipping point away from de facto software standards to de jure ones. And that would not be good news for Microsoft, who has made billions off its de facto (but decidedly NOT de jure) standards.
One of the interesting marketing campaigns going on nowdays is on the demand side. An article at PC World notes that Massachusetts is now formally notifying vendors that it will only accept software that supports open XML-based document standards. In essence, they are marketing their requirements to software vendors. Of course, Microsoft is quite annoyed by this, but it is one of the few recent examples of demand-side marketing I've seen.
As an aside, here's a bit of trivia for readers. Everyone knows what a monopoly is, but does anyone know what a monopsony is? It is a market with only one dominant buyer, just as a monopoly is a market with only one dominant seller. Governments are often monopsonies for many types of services and products, which is one of the reasons this move by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is so interesting. This could be the tipping point away from de facto software standards to de jure ones. And that would not be good news for Microsoft, who has made billions off its de facto (but decidedly NOT de jure) standards.
posted by Carl Howe at
10:57 AM
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