PC makers show their worst fears news.com
Government documents detailing Microsoft's hardball tactics bring into sharp focus a PC company's worst nightmare: alienating the Redmond empire.
On Monday, the Justice Department filed testimony from Compaq Computer, Gateway 2000, and Micron Electronics demonstrating that all three companies were required to carry the Internet Explorer browser as a condition of licensing Windows 95. Two of those companies now say it was the superiority of its products--rather than alleged threats by Microsoft--that drove them to make their decision.
Micron chairman and chief executive Joe Daltoso issued a statement yesterday that a declaration made by a manager at his company did not constitute a complaint about Microsoft. And John Rose, a senior vice president at Compaq, told the Wall Street Journal that it was customer demand, not a Microsoft letter threatening to terminate its Windows 95 license, that drove his company to offer Internet Explorer exclusively on the boxes it sold.
Yes, I'm sure the customers were on the horn to Compaq and Micron, demanding integrity and uniformity in their Windows Experience.
Micron may have special reason to worry. According to the deposition filed by its manager, Eric Browning, the company's Windows 95 license expires next week. The company declined to discuss whether it has renewed an agreement yet, but an analyst who follows the Nampa, Idaho, company says its needs all the bargaining position it can get.
Cheers, Dan. |
