DEAD COMPANY CAN'T JUMP
Here are some excerpts from a prominent California newspaper.
They gave very good advise to Netscape, but I doubt Netscape can benefit from this advise--DEAD COMPANY CAN'T JUMP!.
Netscape Communications Corp. just happens to control 60 percent of
the global market for Internet browsers, probably the fastest-growing
segment of the computer industry.
Yet this fabulously successful company has convinced the U.S.
government that it is a victim of unfair competition. And the Justice
Department's antitrust division has come galloping to the rescue.
Recently, Justice announced that it has asked a federal court to slap
Microsoft with a contempt citation and a big fine because of the way it
is competing against - break out the hankies - poor little Netscape.
The Justice Department is arguing that Microsoft violated a 1995 agreement by
bundling its Internet browser program, Explorer, together with the standard
Windows 95 operating system. Justice says that's unfair to Netscape. Netscape
doesn't sell an operating system, so it can't bundle its browser software in the
same way.
The technical question here is whether Microsoft is really bundling two separate
programs - or whether the two have become one.
The head of the antitrust division declares firmly that Windows and Explorer
are "two separate products" and must remain so. Microsoft says the 'Net
browser has gradually become part of its operating system, so it's only natural
to put both tools in a single package.
On this point, Microsoft clearly has the stronger argument. To prevail, the
Justice Department has to take the insupportable position that all the elements
of a software program are set in concrete with the first version, and the maker
can't add any features without violating the law.
In fact, incorporation of new features has been going on as long as there have
been software programs. The current version of Windows, for example, has all
sorts of useful tools - a clock, a CD player, a file-compression utility, a
disk-defragging program - that used to be sold as separate programs.
Netscape has done the same thing with each new version of its browser.
Consumers aren't complaining; we get, for free, programs that we used to pay
for.
And any user who doesn't want the Microsoft browser can still use Netscape,
which is available everywhere. Over the past three months, we have had the
chance to use new PCs from Dell, IBM, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard and
Toshiba. On every one of them, both Explorer and Netscape came
pre-installed, for free. It's hard to see how this gives Microsoft any advantage.
So the government should not, and probably will not, win its headline-grabbing
legal action against Microsoft.
As for Netscape, it should quit whining and fire back at Microsoft by
developing an operating system of its own - an "Anti-Windows," if you will - to
bundle with its Web browser. Windows 95 may be the most widely used
software program in the world, but it is probably the most widely disliked
program as well.
Millions of us would gladly buy "Anti-Windows" - and take Netscape
Navigator along with it in the package. |
