EU and Microsoft reach anti-trust agreement
MICROSOFT HAS WELCOMED the latest round in the European browser debate after the European Commission apparently accepted its proposed measures.
"We welcome today's announcement by the European Commission [EC] to move forward with formal market testing of Microsoft's proposal relating to web browser choice in Europe," said Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith in a statement.
"We also welcome the opportunity to take the next step in the process regarding our proposal to promote interoperability with a broad range of our products."
Smith is referring to the Vole's proposal to offer a browser ballot selection page to buyers of its operating system. This would mean that hardware manufacturers can install several browsers onto machines and let the punter make their own choice.
Smith explained that, although there had been some wrangling, an agreement had been reached that would stay in place for five years.
Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for competition, added: "Without choice, competition will die, and without competition, innovation will die. This case is not just about competition today, it is about competition and innovation tomorrow, next month and next year."
As part of the agreement Microsoft is also making technical documentation available to assist developers and third parties that want to build products to work with Microsoft systems, including Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint.
"Today is an important day. Although the EC has not made its final decision, today's news is a major step forward and we are hopeful that this will help move us towards closure to the past and the building of a new foundation for the future," said Smith.
However, although Smith welcomed the agreement, others described it as a compromise.
"We are glad that Microsoft and the EC have reached a compromise in which developers are not adversely affected by the removal of code from Windows," said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology.
"This solution addresses the EC's concerns while ensuring that software developers can continue using the underlying Internet Explorer code to build their programmes." µ
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But not only them, Nullsoft Winamp, VLC Media Player, OpenOffice.org, TuxPaint will get another ballots that users can custom-built their Windows 7 for media player, paint program, wordpad, notepad, calculator, windows explorer and even the icons for each programs. I believe MS will make it simple with reduced time for choosing like a default option.
I have seen a lot of confusion about this, with people thinking that Mozilla and the other browser outfits have been the people pushing for this.
It was the EU who brought this anti-trust action against MS and without any urging from above mentioned parties. It was their action based off of their perception of an uncompetitive industry, the web browser industry.
Mozilla and the like only got involved AFTER the decision was made and they were ASKED for their input.
So if you disagree with this action don't get mad at Mozilla, Apple, Opera, etc. Get mad at the EU.
Or don't. Because I work as a comp. technician and service a lot of regular home users. The antithesis of the power user. And guess which browser they tend to use? The one that came with their computer. In fact we generally load up Firefox on custom builds and they buy one of those and come back in the store 95% of the time they'll still be using FF.
When you recommend another browser they are afraid to change because they "already know how to work this one".
IE is functional and 8 has some interesting features but I don't think it stands up to FF with all its add-ons or Chrome with its speed.
How is Mozilla market share rising without this ballot? Its their OS, they can choose what to install.
I wonder whether EU will ask Apple to open up its platform.
Good product will always gain market share. Yes, you need to communicate and make it available to the customer. But any student of marketing, who hasnt graduated yet, knows that.
But what EU wants is subsidising other products.
She did all those big talk about innovation, well protectionism isnt actually the way to innovate. Haha
According to StatCounter Global Stats, Firefox already has ~40% market share in Europe and ~60% in Germany, Europe's strongest economy. In the old world, Microsoft finally lost the browser battle and decided not to pay a hefty fine for nothing. European users clearly don't want Internet Explorer, and they no longer want to be forced to install the legacy browser.
Microsoft still tries to force Internet Explorer on corporate users. Microsoft's web applications like Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Sharepoint automatically switch into "dumb mode" when they recognize a non-Microsoft user agent. I hope, the European Commission will prohibit the use of Sharepoint and Exchange next.
I am looking forward to hearing Steve Ballmer explain his suicidal European web strategy to Microsoft shareholders.
Hey Steve: It's time to play nice! It may be too late, though.
This deal could work only if Microsucks is fined 500 BILLION Euro and pays up this week for their chronic violations of law, for which they have been convicted on three continents.
That's not what happened. Here is the real truth: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/439&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Invitation for third party comments
Pursuant to Article 27 (4) of Regulation 1/2003, a so-called "market test notice" with a summary of the proposed commitments will be published in the EU's Official Journal on 9 October 2009. The full version of the commitments is available on the Commission's website at:
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/index/by_nr_79.html#i39_530
Interested parties will be formally invited by the market test notice in the Official Journal to present their comments within one month of the publication in Official Journal.
Under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003, the Commission may decide to make the commitments legally binding on Microsoft. Such an Article 9 decision would find that there are no longer grounds for action by the Commission, without explicitly concluding on the existence of an infringement of EC antitrust rules.
Additional proposals on interoperability information
In July 2009, Microsoft also made proposals in relation to disclosures of interoperability information that would improve interoperability between third party products and several Microsoft products, including Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange, and SharePoint (see MEMO/09/352 ). Microsoft is publishing improved proposals on its website. The Commission welcomes this initiative. Even though it remains informal vis-à-vis the Commission, Microsoft’s proposal, which is in the form of a public undertaking, includes warranties that Microsoft offers to third parties and that can be privately enforced.