Microsoft's Most Exclusive Franchise.
It's called lock-in, and one of the company's executives described how it works in a memo to Bill Gates that's part of the European Union's voluminous report (300k PDF) on why it's attempting to make our favorite monopolist behave moderately better. The executive, Aaron Contorer, told Gates:
“The Windows API is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead." What this is saying is roughly as follows: Microsoft will do a great job for software developers, but it'll also make sure they can't get out once they've gotten in. The memo also says:
"It is this switching cost that has given customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high TCO, our lack of a sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties. […] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move. "In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago.” There's much more in the EU document, which comes on top of the U.S. case that showed repeated lawbreaking by a monopoly that has only grown stronger over time. Read it for yourself, and you'll see again the predatory nature of the world's most powerful monopoly -- a company that is resolute about not reforming its behavior. Why should it? For Microsoft, lawbreaking and lock-in are just part of the business plan, a great investment.
[Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
Every now and again Dan Gillmor (of the San Jose Mercury) treats us to a little dose of reality about Microsoft and its wonderful business practices. Just to remind us of how the world's most sucessful monopolist conducts itself, and gets away with it.
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