“Microsoft was humiliated by the European Union’s Court of First Instance on Monday when it rejected almost all elements of the software giant’s appeal against the 2004 rulings made by the competition commissioner,” Bill Thompson writes for BBC News.
“The court found that Microsoft had abused its monopoly power in pushing an embedded Windows Media Player out with Windows XP and Vista, and that the lack of detailed technical information about the programming interfaces and data formats for Windows Server products was an illegal barrier to competition,” Thompson writes.
“Some of [Microsoft's] competitors seem to get a very easy ride,” writes Thompson. “The best example of this is Apple…”
Thompson bemoans the fact that unsupported iPhone ringtones have become – gasp! – unsupported with Apple’s new iTunes Store now selling ringtones. Shocking.
Thompson also whines that the latest iPods will not output video through cables or docks that aren’t Apple authorized and claims that Apple “charges a hefty cut” for the privilege. Rather unsurprisingly, Thompson offers no proof about the “heftiness” of Apple’s “Made for iPod” licensing program. In fact, Belkin, one of the leading makers of accessories, said in March 2005 that they were “taking part in the program and strongly supports it as a way to help identify quality products.” The program is designed to keep iPod accessory standards up to Apple’s levels. Apple reportedly takes the 10% of wholesale pricing the program costs “Made for iPod” participants and rolls it right back into iPod advertising, thereby helping the iPod accessory makers. The alternative would be a situation you see all the time on the WIndows platform with crapola peripherals that break, don’t work correctly or at all, etc. (But, hey, at least they’re consistent with the OS experience offered by Microsoft.)
Next Thompson worries that all twelve Linux users with iPods will have to recode their unsupported hacks if they want to use their iPods on Linux boxes. Once again, Thompson blames Apple for not supporting unsupported apps on unsupported operating systems.
Supposedly, these three piffles make Apple “just as bad as Microsoft” in Thompson’s not-too-bright eyes.
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Jon" for the heads up.]
Thompson, a sort of hairier, but at least as dense, UK version of John Dvorak, shows utter lack of perspective. He must be abjectly unfamiliar with the Microsoft case to have dashed off such a piece of twaddle.
Just like Mike Elgan’s recent foolish Computerworld piece, “Apple is the new Microsoft,” Thompson ignores a multitude of facts and history, not to mention copious legal testimony and verdicts. Bottom line: Thompson’s piece is simply a quest for hits from a Microsoft apologist working for The BBC, an outfit that’s plainly in bed with Microsoft.
Let us know when Apple threatens some other company that they’ll need the “knife the baby” in order to continue receiving a critical product or support from Apple, okay, Bill? Even then, they’ll have only scratched the surface of Microsoftian strongarm tactics and illegal monopoly abuse.
The fact is that Microsoft is getting just a tiny bit of what they’ve long deserved. Deal with it. Stop trying to drag Apple into it just because they want to ensure that iPods and iPhones work correctly on supported systems.
There is simply no sane way to equate Microsoft’s illegal monopoly abuse with anything Apple has done or is doing.
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