IP: re herring Microsoft giveth, but not much

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Catch of the Day: Microsoft giveth, but not much
>
> Microsoft wants to show a willingness to bargain on the
> settlement terms of its antitrust suit. That is the stated
> intent behind the company's announcement Wednesday that it
> will allow PC vendors (and users) to uninstall Internet
> Explorer from Windows XP and also will allow PC makers to
> put their own icons on the new Windows desktop.
>
> The icon concession is a good thing for PC vendors, as it
> allows them to differentiate their offerings and showcase
> their "value-add" by putting their own applications in the
> position where new users are most likely to see them. It's
> also good for software developers.
>
> The Internet Explorer concession, however, is only symbolic.
> It's what the antitrust suit wanted, but it's too late.
> Sure, a vendor could replace IE with Netscape or another
> browser, but there's no longer a clear user advantage to
> such a swap (Windows without IE would be a value-minus), and
> the development costs for a new competitive product would be
> prohibitive.
>
> More importantly, Windows Media Player and MSN are still
> cemented into the operating system's user interface, and
> these are products that do have serious threats: RealPlayer
> and AOL. Microsoft still knows how to protect its
> weaknesses.
>
> - Rafe Needleman
>   rafe-needleman () redherring com



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