EU fines Microsoft $733M for breaking browser pact

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

I wonder what would be said if Microsoft got sued for not allowing other browsers on their windows phone (and actually lost it too), despite having less than 20% market share, what would that be considered as then? Not saying it is going to happen, but just food for thought.

 

[Rich White]

I wonder what would be said if Microsoft got sued for not allowing other browsers on their windows phone (and actually lost it too), despite having less than 20% market share, what would that be considered as then? Not saying it is going to happen, but just food for thought.

Combine the EUs nonsense with The Apple and Samsung Tablet wars in the courts blocking distribution of tablets and you have Surface. There's more to the Surface initiative than meets the eye. Microsoft had to change distribution models to avoid patent trolls attacking third-party tablet vendors and regulatory politics like the EU.​

 

[aniym]

I wonder what would be said if Microsoft got sued for not allowing other browsers on their windows phone (and actually lost it too), despite having less than 20% market share, what would that be considered as then? Not saying it is going to happen, but just food for thought.

It's food for thought in the same way that Swaziland colonizing China would be food for thought; it is beyond the realm of possibility. You yourself point out that WP has 3% market share and that alone would be enough to have such a lawsuit laughed out of court.

The reason the DOJ case was successful was partly because of timing. The internet was the new paradigm of computing in the mid 90s and there were plenty of powerful companies lobbying hard to ensure no one company became too powerful in that space. MS also screwed themselves because of the very public way they squeezed out Netscape Navigator with Internet explorer.

Don't forget that at one time both the DOJ and the EC wanted Microsoft split up entirely. MS should have offered to quietly settle the case and make IE optional from the get go. instead they let the case drag on for years, with testimony about anti competitive behavior splashed all over the news, which gave them a highly tarnished reputation among consumers. Enterprise and Wall St wasn't too bothered of course...at the height of the tech boom MS was the world's most valuable company by market capitalization.

It certainly didn't help that IE6's 90pct plus market share gave them an excuse to let IE6 stagnate between 2001 and 2007. Enterprise may have been locked into IE6 to ensure compatibility with various SaaS applications, but there was nothing stopping MS from developing an updated version and marketing it for home use. I remember downloading Firefox in 2004 and thinking, this is fantastic. Younger people might take tabbed browsing as a given today but back then it felt like the future and made MS look like a dinosaur.