wal-mart, should it have this much power? Options

[timeflies51]

Here is Wal-Mart's latest stunt:

Apple recently announced that they are going to have movies available for downloading at a price of $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for regular flicks. Wal-Mart sells 40% of all of the DVDs that are sold anywhere at a price of $17. Obviously, this is going to have a large impact on their profits. Wal-Mart is also planning to have their own download site to compete with Apple.

Wal-Mart is threatening Hollywood companies and telling them to cut their prices for DVDs lower so they can compete with Apple, (edit) or telling them not to have their movies available for download at all. They've gotten nasty about it, too; they didn't want to sell "High School Musical" because Disney let it be available for download on iTunes.

(EDIT) If certain companies in Hollywood do not comply with Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart will not sell that companies' DVDs.


Do you think Wal-Mart has the right to do this? Not only that, what do you think of Wal-Mart in general? Discuss.

[Spirited Away]

Microsoft isn't doing anything illegal by making software/windows incompatible with MacOS/PPC. That would be like nailing a gas company because their unleaded doesn't work with diesel cars. What Windows did was unfairly use its favorable position in the OS market by bundling iexplore with Windows and make it work more efficiently with windows

The Microsoft-Apple analogy isn't very sound. Microsoft is a hardware company, whereas Apple is a hardware company. Apple is in competition with companies like Dell, not Microsoft.
I still think this would definitely be a case of Wal-Mart using its market dominance to unfairly manipulate the market. It's definitely unfair business practices.

Shows what I know about Microsoft/technology industry then, huh. Haha. (I think you mean software for Microsoft, Michael, but I got the idea). Actually, I don't even know all that much about iTunes either. Therefore, I bow to the techie gurus.

Back to Wal-Mart then, where I feel a little safer. It is definitely hostile business practices, but not enough to justify calling Wal-Mart a monopoly. Yea, okay, I'm done.

[*kryogenix*]

The Microsoft-Apple analogy isn't very sound. Microsoft is a hardware company, whereas Apple is a hardware company. Apple is in competition with companies like Dell, not Microsoft.

I still think this would definitely be a case of Wal-Mart using its market dominance to unfairly manipulate the market. It's definitely unfair business practices.

Ummm, did you mean something else here?

[Spirited Away]

Software, ain't it?

[*kryogenix*]

Software, ain't it?

Well, it could be switched for either. Microsoft does make some hardware, not the least of which is the Xbox 360. Apple makes software as well.

[*mipadi*]

Sorry, sometimes my brain gets ahead of my typing. It should read:

The Microsoft-Apple analogy isn't very sound. Microsoft is a software company, whereas Apple is a hardware company. Apple is in competition with companies like Dell, not Microsoft.

The point is that Microsoft and Apple aren't actually competitors; Apple makes most of its money from hardware, not software. The software is just icing on the cake.