To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (15298 ) 12/21/1997 8:19:00 PM From: Daniel Schuh Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Microsoft's Real Enemy: Itself abcnews.com . . . Largely unnoticed because of the distraction furnished by Justice's hilarious legal maneuverings against the company was the release of a flawed Internet Explorer 4.0 and the company's uncharacteristic defense of it. Most illuminating was Microsoft Executive Vice President Steve Ballmer's defiant admission last month that Internet Explorer 4.0 was buggy. "I'm not trying to say there's some excuse for bugs," Ballmer said, as he began excusing IE's bugs, "but the reality is, you're always making a set of tradeoffs about the probability of problems-unknown problems-versus when you ship." Most scandalous was the effect of installing the browser on the Compaq Presario-the flagship line of home computers from the nation's No. 1 seller of home PCs. Users who installed IE 4.0 on their Presarios, then rebooted, found that their desktops had gone blank. There is an odd, ironic touch to this sad affair. Microsoft's ethical lapse and Ballmer's defense of it is the classic behavior of a monopolist. No longer subject to competitive pressure, the monopolist grows lazy and careless, making poorer products and disdaining the needs of customers. But this collapse was caused by the opposite: intense pressure from an able competitor. Determined to beat market leader Netscape to market-both companies were feverishly working on 4.0 releases of their browsers-Microsoft forced its way out the door first, knowing full well that it was unleashing a disaster for countless users. You have to wonder how a company renowned for logical thinking and analysis fell for this bit of logic: In the battle for market share, customers be damned.
