Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by phillc73 on Monday December 16, 2019 @02:47PM
(#21806443)
It's been many years since I was actively involved in agriculture, but I don't recall John Deere being a monopoly. There were choices including Ford, Case, Masse Ferguson, Kubota, New Holland and then regionally brands like MTZ and Steyr.
That's not to say they're not all participating in the same practices, I just don't know, but is Deere really a monopoly?
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by macintux on Monday December 16, 2019 @02:59PM
(#21806574)
Per this page, Deere has over 30% of the market; I don't know that would be considered a monopoly, but assuming the rest of the market is heavily fragmented, it's certainly a dominant position.
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by ameister14 on Monday December 16, 2019 @03:56PM
(#21807098)
I think Deere has about 25-35% of the market, with New Holland and Kubota in there afterwards
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by Eric_WVGG on Monday December 16, 2019 @02:59PM
(#21806578)
True. My usual very-unscientific method is a search for "john deere vs" which turned up some alternatives but they seemed to be obscure to the point of giving Deere an effective monopoly, but yeah I don't really know.
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by wavefunction on Monday December 16, 2019 @03:02PM
(#21806597)
Driving through rural Texas I've even seen a Tata dealership.
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by SteveGerencser on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:26PM
(#21809919)
JD is on where near a monopoly on anything other than green paint. Mahindra, Case IH, Kubota, New Holland, and on and on are all equally available, and in most cases cheaper, alternatives that function just as well. We own both a Case and a Kubota.
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by magduf on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @12:23PM
(#21815895)
It's probably a lot like Apple: lots of people absolutely insist on buying from them, and then complain when they get abused. But if you suggest they look at alternatives, they either dismiss it out-of-hand as completely impossible, or worse they get offended.
> John Deere declined to be interviewed but sent a lengthy statement outlining its concerns. The company doesn’t want people altering its copyright-protected code because, said director of public relations Ken Golden, “changes could lead to the unsafe operation of products, disruption of machine capabilities and performance, changes to emissions controls, voiding of warranties and lack of transparency to the changes when the equipment is sold to another user”.
But yeah, money.
One thing that gets lost in this particular controversy, IMO, is that John Deere is effectively a monopoly in this space. If farmers were able to choose between tractors that were built like Dell laptops vs ones built like iPads…
So this is a problem of digital rights, but one could argue that it’s also a problem of deregulation and lack of competition.