Microsoft formally withdraws remaining EU appeals

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Well, according to the EU, they won, Vista is still

being looked at>

"In a ruling that's expected to have far-reaching implications, the European Union (EU) Court of First Instance upheld European Commission claims that Microsoft abused their dominant position in the operating system (OS) market, siding with regulators in an antitrust case. The law suit began in early 2004. (Source: CNET News)

"The court ruling is welcome for its confirmation of the Commission's decision and its underlying policy, but nevertheless, it is bittersweet, because the court has confirmed the Commission's view that consumers are suffering at the hands of Microsoft" said Neelie Kroes, the Commission's Competition Commissioner during a press conference.

She added that if Microsoft does comply with the ruling, she expects to see a significant drop in Microsoft's overwhelming market share.

The ruling by the court required Microsoft to share certain technological specifications or protocols with rivals so competitors could make their products work with the Microsoft OS. It also required Microsoft to offer unbundled options to consumers when tying two separate products together, such as Windows and Microsoft's Media Player software. It also upheld a $613 million fine imposed by the Commission.

Windows Vista and the EU Ruling

The antitrust law suit was brought about during the time when Windows XP was becoming the dominant OS. Now that Vista has been released, how will the ruling affect it?

Recently, Microsoft has had to face complaints about the way Vista handles search, antivirus security and certain document formats among other things. Neelie Kroes, the Commission's Competition Commissioner told Microsoft in 2006 that she was worried about features in Vista limiting customers' choices and competitors' ability to develop programs that would run smoothly in Vista. (Source: The Associated Press)

Before Microsoft released Vista to businesses in November 2006, the company said it had made changes that solved EU and competitor concerns. The EU didn't give Microsoft the go ahead, saying Microsoft should know how to comply with antitrust law. The EU hasn't re-examined Vista yet, nor has it given Microsoft the all-clear.

Analysts differ on how the ruling will affect Windows Vista

"Directions on Microsoft" analyst Matt Rosoff said Vista clearly reflects the European Commission's antitrust verdict against Microsoft three years ago. "Without the 2004 decision having been in place, they might have been more aggressive about bundling features, like Web search. I think they've been pretty careful about what they're putting into Vista" Rosoff said.

But Gartner Research Inc. analyst Michael Silver said that Vista isn't out of danger yet. "Microsoft did a number of things to pre-emptively repair things in Vista that they thought might come up, but the EU could demand certain things that are beyond what Microsoft would willingly do" Silver said. One example could be for regulators to tell Microsoft to hand over proprietary Vista technology to competitors he said."

Posted by: ralphrides   Posted on: 10/30/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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