A kinder, gentler gorilla?
economist.com
No laughing matter
Yet despite all this, there are good reasons to be sceptical about Microsoft’s intentions (or even ability) to reform itself. Granting limited access to the Windows source code, for example, may help to soften Microsoft’s image, but it is a far cry from embracing the open-source model. Microsoft has falsely portrayed itself as the champion of open standards in the past, notably during its “browser war” with Netscape, only to revert to its old tactics later. Might the company not simply be waiting for XML, SOAP and the other new standards to take off, ask its critics, before hijacking them by creating its own proprietary versions?
Such fears were heightened last month when Microsoft announced a batch of services, codenamed HailStorm, that form part of its .NET strategy. Just as Windows provides PC programmers with access to basic functions, such as drawing on the screen or accessing the network, HailStorm will provide similar “building block” functions (e-mail, instant messaging and so on) for programmers to incorporate into the software for their web-based services.
The idea is that users will sign up with Microsoft for HailStorm services and pay a monthly fee; this will enable them to use web services that rely on HailStorm’s building blocks. Microsoft hopes that this will make .NET an attractive platform for programmers, and thus encourage them to adopt .NET rather than the approach based on Java, a programming language that is being promoted by Microsoft’s rivals, chief among them Sun Microsystems. Already, American Express, eBay, Expedia and Groove Networks have all announced plans to build .NET web services using HailStorm.
What is worrying, however, is that HailStorm will be closely integrated with Windows XP, the next version of Windows, so that once a user has logged into Windows no further action is required to make use of HailStorm services. Indeed, the log-on and registration systems for Windows XP and HailStorm will be the same. Microsoft will, in other words, be able to turn millions of Windows users into HailStorm users, and to offer programmers an enormous potential audience for .NET web services. Similarly, by funnelling millions of users into HailStorm from HotMail and MSN, its Internet properties, Microsoft may be able to sign up as many as 100m HailStorm users by the end of 2003. The firm thus has a golden opportunity to exploit the dominance of Windows to ensure that .NET takes off. It is, as one analyst puts it, “vintage Microsoft”.
The company is up to its old tricks in other ways, too. Windows XP contains several new functions, including media-playback and remote-troubleshooting features, that previously required the purchase of additional software. Makers of such software may now face the same fate as Netscape—Microsoft can extinguish them whenever it chooses.
Windows XP also includes the latest version of Microsoft’s music and video player, Windows Media Player 8, which will not work with previous versions of Windows. As well as encouraging users to switch to Windows XP, it contains a new music-compression format called WMA, which is being positioned as an alternative to the popular MP3 format. Microsoft argues, with good reason, that WMA has several technical advantages over MP3, including smaller file-sizes; but the fact remains that Microsoft is using the clout of Windows to promote its own playback software and music format. The parallels with the Netscape case, in which Microsoft used Windows to promote its web browser, are ominously clear.
In short, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, if Microsoft has changed at all, it has done so only superficially. Inside the software industry’s 800-pound gorilla, the heart of an incorrigible monopolist beats still.
Thanks to The Economist. |
