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Quick Mention: Is Microsoft Begging for Another Antitrust Slap?

Watch this latest scoop.

Microsoft memo: Windows 7 and Windows Live to be even more tightly joined at the hip



[...]

But it’s all about the future of Windows Live — and how Microsoft’s family of Windows-complementary services are going to get a lot more cozy with Windows and Internet Explorer.


If you take a quick glimpse at the links at the bottom, you will find that none of this is particularly new. Nonetheless, it's anti-competitive and there will probably be lawsuits over this in the future. Companies like Google suffer in this case, not just Web services other and applications. As Google ought to have discovered by now, the Department of Justice won't help here. The same type of tricks (bundling - integration - compatibility - exclusion) apply to other areas such as Web browsers and virtualisation. More on this topic in the next post...

Related articles:

Connecting the dots on Windows 7

I would have asked one more follow up: Was Gates hinting that Microsoft will build more of its currently standalone Windows Live services right into the operating system?


Where Should Vendors Stick Their Services?

Wondering if you noticed the news over at Microsoft Watch this week that Microsoft has done what many considered inevitable: Started using Windows as a way to hawk Windows Live Services?

It's not too surprising to me that Microsoft is splashing all over its Welcome to Vista screen (at least in one of the latest Vista test builds, No. 5506) promotional links, inviting users to download Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Mail Desktop, and more. But I was surprised the Redmondians would be so bold as to actually embed Windows Live Messenger into Vista. After all the antitrust lawsuits Microsoft has been slapped with here, there and everywhere -- many of which have focused on its "innovative integration" (a k a, bundling) strategies, you'd think they'd be a little more cautious.

With the actual Windows Live Messenger code (not just a download link) being integrated right into Vista, I think Microsoft might be really going out on a limb. When backed into a corner before about its integration strategy, Microsoft's defense was that removing any of the integrated components (Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, etc.) would break the OS. But if Vista test builds have been working just fine (well, middling, maybe, based on some not-so-happy tester comments) without Windows Live Messenger, how can Microsoft make a case for it being part of Windows?


Microsoft broke anti-trust agreement,' prosecutors claim

It's claimed Microsoft's engineers used at least 500 undocumented APIs to ensure Microsoft's applications worked better with Windows than those of competitors.


Microsoft rivals file second European complaint

...Microsoft was preventing access to Vista's programming interfaces and hindering the development of compatible products, thus repeating anti-competitive violations the commission had identified three years ago in a previous operating system.

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