electronics-industry

However, I found the pitch of the book to be not quite right. In an attempt to satisfy a student market, the presentation is a little simplistic in places. Although there are IO courses everywhere, there are few solely devoted to network industries - so it is surprising that the publishers risked producing a paperback.

As a consumer, the price of Professor Shy's book is an appealing factor, but I found Hans Gottinger's far more up-to-date, rigorous and analytical book of the same title (Routledge, 2003) more stimulating.

The book starts from the basic economics of networks and then analyses various networked industries from hardware to software and airlines to social interactions. Most topics stand separately on their own feet. The book ends with a compact presentation on the used game theoretical concepts as appendices.

Being a texbook in economics, however, does not excuse inaccurate and sometimes clearly misleading use of technical terms. I had serious problems understanding why "software" denotes in this book to all kind of digital content including music and movies. In my mind, the word software is restricted to computer programs and associated materials. Also, building models on some specific technology, Shy continuously leaps over the problem of defining its essential features, which should (or should not) be modeled. Taking definitions of technical terms as given (by Shy) can definitely confuse at least engineering students.

In overall, this book might be best characterized as an academic add-on to the well-known business book "Information Rules" by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian. With some inaccurancies and perhaps some time-gap to real world applications, it makes a good textbook. Essential parts are timeless and presentation clear.

Both books are horrible, but this one is by far the worst.

I might just cut the spine and cover off this book and glue it to a different one. This way if my relative stops over she sees the title on my bookshelf and think it's not in the dumpster where it belongs.

If the point of the book is to lampoon the crass nature of the people in Seattle working on VR, it succeeds admirably. Somehow, however, I don't think that was intended to be the point. Read it only if you have a strong stomach for brainless greed, hype, and outright BS.

While the few facts I can personally relate to are accurate, they do focus a great deal on emotion and bitterness and seem to take one person's accounts as gospel without balance from others. It does state many of the hidden trials of startups.

The writing style is weak. I found the plot disjoint and with too much coverage in some areas, and mostly too little development/depth in others. If I were to have read the book without personal knowledge of the people mentioned, I would have screamed for more character development.

I agree with the other reviewer that this is something you borrow from the library. It was a quick read.

But it is an annoying self-aggrandizing ego-building piece for Ellison. It bashes Microsoft and Siebel as well as any other company it views as a competitor. It is obvious that Oracle wants complete domination of the database and business suite market so that Ellison can then claim he is the richest person in the world.

What they do not tell you is that their Oracle 11i release needs 5,000 patches and then it still does not work.

If you are building a database with e-business apps for your business then avoid this book and simply read Ellison's 'How we saved a billion dollars a year' on their website. Better books are: Sawhney & Zabin - 7 steps to Nirvana - Strategic insights into eBusiness transformation; e-business 2.0 - Kalakota; customer relationship management - brown; e-business & e-commerce for managers - deitel (a textbook); executives guide to e-business - Deise et al.

But it is an annoying self-aggrandizing ego-building piece for Ellison. It bashes Microsoft and Siebel as well as any other company it views as a competitor. It is obvious that Oracle wants complete domination of the database and business suite market so that Ellison can then claim he is the richest person in the world.

What they do not tell you is that their Oracle 11i release needs 5,000 patches and then it still does not work.

If you are building a database with e-business apps for your business then avoid this book and simply read Ellison's 'How we saved a billion dollars a year' on their website. Better books are: Sawhney & Zabin - 7 steps to Nirvana - Strategic insights into eBusiness transformation; e-business 2.0 - Kalakota; customer relationship management - brown; e-business & e-commerce for managers - deitel (a textbook); executives guide to e-business - Deise et al.

This fact alone make me read the factual components with a pinch of salt.

Sorry Guys.