Not in consoles yet, but in the PC world, you bet! Just give them time. We are already seeing a warning sign. The current strategy is to lose tons of money by selling what is basically a knock-off product in order to cut profitable and innovative competitors out of the market. Once that's done they can hike up prices and not worry about pesky innovation coming from anywhere and cutting into their bottom line (gained by selling re-hashes of the same stuff over and over again with no innovation).
The X-Box is actually a pretty good product, the problem they are having is that they are selling them for less than they cost to make. That means they need market share, and that has to come from other game makers. Lets face it nobody is forced to buy a X-Box, they have to make people want them, Sony played the same game when they got into the game industry, Nintendo did the same too. Sega, Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision and a bunch of other smaller players have come and gone. If your box doesn't cut it or you don't have the games then you are going to fail. Microsoft has deep enough pockets to hang it there for awhile but the X-box 2 better be something great. I don't think we will ever have to worry about all those pesky innovations ever stoping in the game arena, the competition will always be too stiff. Just ask Atari.
As far as PC's go, well the company came from a guys garage, they had to be doing something right, I mean Apple had home computing all wrapped up till they blew it, one different decision on Apple's part and we would all be using Appleclones instead of IBMclones and Microsoft windows would still be in the garage. Microsoft does fight to stay on top but then again all companies do, it is just buisness, Wal Mart, Sony, General Electric, Exxon, etc.....you don't get to stay on top if you play nice. Microsoft has a huge research and development department, they do everything they can to make sure that they never stop innovating, because if they did they would be dead in the water, yes they keep putting out their own products to counter products that could beat them out, (java vs. C#, media player vs. realplayer, netscape vs. IE, etc.), it is the way things work, every company does it. Microsoft is a big bully because if it wasn't it wouldn't survive. I really don't like Microsofts buisness practices either but lets remember that every company out there does the same exact thing to some extend, and the reason they don't do more is that they don't have the power to do it, you better believe that Realplayer would love to crush all it's competiton and force their products onto computers, Netscape would love to have the power to bully lesser companies, they are part of the Time Warner big bully company that has swallowed so much of the tv and entertainment industry. What's good for the consumer never enters into the equation from any company, it all about what's good for the company. Things will change the backlash is growing and technology will eventually get away from them. The fact that they are trying to get their finger into so many pies is strictly for survival, the windows market will not last forever, eventually somebody will get linux to a point where it is viable for the average consumer, or some major company with deep pockets will come up with a alternate OS, and the monopoly is over, lets face it Microsoft will have a hard time beating out a inferior product now, ( a superior product would kill them) their reputation has been dragged through the mud, more and more people outright hate them.
