When will HP, et al, cry "Unfair competition!"
Dell launches sub-$100 laser printerNot to put words into their mouth, but I'm waiting for Dell's competitors to realize they can't compete, then accuse Dell of "anti-competitive tactics" just because it offers more for less.
Dell has unveiled a black-and-white laser printer priced at $99--low enough, possibly, to kick off a price war in the home and small-office printer market.
The computing giant introduced its Dell Laser Printer 1100 on Tuesday. The device handles up to 15 pages a minute with a resolution of 600 dpi. Analysts predict competitors ranging from Hewlett-Packard to Lexmark will feel the pressure to offer something comparable, given that their low-end monochrome lasers start at roughly twice that price.
"Dell's laser is a disruptive price," said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co., adding, "This could cause more consumers to shift over to laser."
Isn't that the New American Way Of Doing Business? If you can't compete, sue; or go the FTC. If Dell gains too much market share (often confused with "market power"), perhaps Compaq-HP and IBM could have the federal government investigate breaking Dell up into smaller, completely separate companies. One would involve Dell's base of desktops and servers, a second would be about monitors and home consumer electronics, and a third would produce printers.
Why is this such a stretch? After all, it's what Microsoft's competitors and the feds tried to do. Basically what they argued is that it's "anti-competitive" to compete.
posted by Perry Eidelbus at
1:30 AM
3 Comments:
Competition is unfair. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.
That this is somehow a bad thing is a bit of a head scratcher.
Over time, certainly, technology will become cheaper and more affordable -- if there's competition to drive prices down. This is what Bastiat's theories of abundance and scarcity are about. But a lot of federal action ostensibly to promote competition in fact hinders it, by punishing those who offer more for less.
This is also an answer to my friend Charlie, who said that Dell's move isn't "anything astounding." Perhaps, perhaps not. Dell is pushing ahead of the pack, and financially, they're doing much better than the competition. So I'm wondering when the FTC will accuse them of being "anti-competitive."
Even Adam Smith had such suspicion about businessmen that he wrote, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." But he wasn't perfect: he also believed in the labor theory of value.
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