“What did Intel CEO Paul Otellini say to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the phone, and what role did that conversation play in Microsoft’s decision to lower the requirements for the “Windows Vista Capable” sticker?” Todd Bishop asks for TechFlash.”That’s one of the questions raised by the internal documents unsealed today in the class-action lawsuit over the Vista Capable program.”
“Plaintiffs in the case cite the message as evidence that Microsoft bowed to pressure from Intel to reduce those requirements, to help Intel sell a type of chipset that didn’t meet the previous ‘Vista Capable’ standards. The plaintiffs say that the lower standards caused some PC buyers to get “VIsta Capable” machines that couldn’t run some of the operating system’s best-known features,” Bishop reports.
“E-mails turned over in the case suggest that the cost to Intel would have reached into the billions of dollars had Microsoft continued to deem the Intel 915 chipset inadequate for the VIsta Capable designation,” Bishop reports.
“The newly disclosed messages make it clear that the issue reached the level of the CEO at each company,” Bishop reports.
“Based on the filings unsealed today, the January 2006 phone conversation with Otellini appears to be a key issue in the plaintiffs’ efforts to depose Ballmer in the case. Microsoft opposes those efforts, saying there’s no need to quiz the Microsoft chief executive as part of the case” Bishop reports.
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MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft. Where the almighty dollar, not the customer, comes first.
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