Clash of the Titans

By Alan

In case you haven’t heard, the somewhat campy 1981 movie Clash of the Titans is being remade, scheduled to come out Spring of 2010. The theme of the mythical storyline is about a man (even though he was somewhat extraordinary) struggling to survive amongst the conflicts between the gods (little “g”) and the offspring of the gods (called Titans). It was common among the Roman and Greek myths to have conflict among the gods, who don’t actually fight directly with each other, but use humans, titans, and heroes as mere pawns in their epic battles. The poor humans who happened to be nearby often suffered because of these battles.

People today believe that they are in charge of their own destiny, and have the freedom to do what they like. This is true, however, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to be victims as bystanders in some titanic struggle that they didn’t start or fully understand.

Anyone who has seen the news recently, knows about high tech companies engaging in titanic struggles and plots to gain numbers of customers or to maximize the profit they get from those customers.

Consider some of the epic battles:

Comcast and Verizon are battling back and forth for market share of the new fiber-based communications backbone in the United States. Both are struggling to bring telephone, internet, and television service to homes. Prices are dropping, and contracts are reworded to lock customers in for longer periods of time.

Microsoft and Yahoo have entered an “agreement” for Yahoo to use Bing! as their main search engine. Essentially, Yahoo gives up on the search engine market, and steps aside.  This ends one of the epic battles that has raged for years, putting Microsoft soundly in 2nd place behind Google as the top two dominate search providers.

Apple, AT&T, and Google are struggling to gain market share in the wireless telephone call market. The Federal Communications Commission is currently investigating anti-competitive practices by Apple and AT&T for their decision to deny Google from bringing an Apple iPhone application for Google Voice. Users of the iPhone are the only major wireless consumers who can’t tap into this amazing new telephone technology.

Google: The son of AT&T is to be left to the whim of chance, while mine is punished with deformity.

AT&T and Verizon dominate the cell telephone, and specifically the smart-phone market. Because customers sign strict contracts and don’t have much choice in the cell oligopoly, customers know that they have no real choice but to pay ridiculously high rates for text messaging or data plans. Look at what they do.

Many people weren’t even aware of the huge exploitation of the innocent masses by all of the major cell phone companies, until David Pogue of the New York Times, has started a campaign to “Take Back the Beep." Recently, wireless providers have added 15 second long messages to the voicemail menus for all of their customers. Individuals might feel that isn’t a big deal, but add up. Pogue thinks that this adds up to almost $850 million dollars a year for Verizon. Who pays? Verizon wireless customers.

Verizon: What a dangerous precedent. What if there more heroes like him? What if courage and imagination became everyday mortal qualities? What will become of us?
AT&T: We would no longer be needed. But, for the moment, there is sufficient cowardice, sloth and mendacity down there on Earth to last forever.

Anyone who has been a customer/victim of any of these massive companies without significant competition of the others has usually been disappointed at the customer service or the restrictive contracts or results. If are part of that monopoly market, you feel like one of those humans being exploited by those supreme beings who control your destiny.

Release the Kraken!

Update on Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 8:02AM by MAD21

Someone pointed out that ABC news recently posted an article with a similar vein.

When Tech Companies War, Do You Lose?