[x3blah]

"Anyone remember when Netscape was a browser monopoly?"

I remember when Andreesen wanted to commercially license Netscape Navigator to companies.

I remember when Microsoft perceived the web as a threat and wanted to act as the gateway to it.

I remember when Google was just a search engine and had no business model.

Perhaps the lesson is that there really is no money to be made from consumers, including corporations, for being the "gateway to the web". Rather, the money is in manipulating or selling out those consumers for the benefit of third parties. The money is to be made from third parties, not consumers. Whomever is the gateway is in the best position to do that.

[srg0]

While it was true for _some_ companies in the last 20 years, it won't necessarily remain the same in the next 20 years. Computer business in 1980 was very different from 2000, and it is very different now. And it's not a given that _most_ of the money is being made from third parties.

Even now, most of the top tech companies are known as hardware companies (Apple, Samsung, Foxconn, Huawei, Dell...). Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook are exceptions. And out of these three, only Alphabet and Facebook thrive on middleman strategy.

[x3blah]

The cost of hardware, with few exceptions, e.g., Apple, and the price paid by consumers for it, continues to fall. This has been the trend for at least the past forty years.

[Torwald]

The money from the consumer goes to the ISP.