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The European Competition Commission announced today that have reached tentative agreement with Microsoft over their concerns about Web browsers and provision of interoperability information for Microsoft server software. Microsoft’s General Counsel Brad Smith explains it more succinctly:
Today’s announcement addresses two sets of measures. The first covers the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows and the way this will work in the future in Europe. This proposed measure ensures that PC manufacturers will continue to be able to install any browser on top of Windows and make any browser the default. It also ensures that PC manufacturers and users will be able to turn Internet Explorer on and off. And it ensures, that for the next five years in Europe, PC users who are running Internet Explorer as their default browser will receive a ballot screen that will enable them to easily download and install another browser if they would like. This ballot screen will be displayed automatically. PC users can make any other browser the default if they prefer. They can even turn Internet Explorer off, although there’s no need to turn off Internet Explorer in order to use a different browser or make another browser the default.
The Commission stated today in its formal notice that, subject to market testing, it intends to adopt a decision that makes the understanding described above legally binding on Microsoft in Europe for the next five years.
The second measure is a “public undertaking” that covers interoperability with Microsoft’s products—the way our high share products work with products from our competitors. This applies to an important set of Microsoft’s products—our Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint products—and represents the single biggest legal commitment in the history of the software industry to promote interoperability. Microsoft’s proposed undertaking will ensure that developers throughout the industry, including in the open source community, will have access to technical documentation to assist them in building products that work well with Microsoft products. Microsoft will also be required to support certain industry standards in its products and to fully document how these standards are supported. Microsoft’s proposed undertaking will make available legally-binding warranties that would be offered to third parties.
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The Commission stated in its announcement today that it welcomes the company’s interoperability initiative. For reasons relating to European legal procedure, this interoperability undertaking follows a different procedural path from the web browser proposal. However, Microsoft will adopt the proposed undertaking in final form upon the Commission’s final adoption of the Internet Explorer commitments.
Public comment is invited and I can see possibilities for the settlement to still go awry before the EU Competition Commission makes its final decision, but it is clearly a step in the right direction for Microsoft who has gained nothing from the pitched battle they have fought in Europe.
When I first saw the announcement that Microsoft had hired Wal-Mart veteran David Porter to open a chain of Microsoft retail stores, I was fairly perplexed because Microsoft hardly needs better retail distribution and so many of their cash cow products are sold via partners (e.g. HP, Dell) that have their own separate retail relationships. It could, of course, have been simple Apple envy, but that would be a very silly way to run a business since Apple’s stores were born out of a precipitous decline in Apple computer retail availability and profited from Apple’s proprietary offerings of combined software and hardware which Microsoft only matches in a few areas like the Zune.
I shouldn’t have worried, since Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division head Robbie Bach apparently knows that lesson very well and reveals that the purpose of the Microsoft retail stores is not moving product:
“And I don’t think — I saw some of the commentary that this was designed to be the same as Apple or whatever. You should think about it, I think, quite differently.
“Apple’s approach was about distribution. People forget that when they entered their stores [in 2001], this was quite a while ago, they didn’t have distribution for Macintoshes, so they created their own distribution.
“We have plenty of distribution. These stores for us are about building our connection to customers, about building our brand presence and about reaching out and understanding what works and what improves the selling experience.
“So Apple you would think of as a volume distribution play. You should think of ours as much more of a brand and customer relationship investment more than anything else.”
I guess we won’t have to worry about tracking “same store sales” for the Microsoft retail stores since they are only for public relations value and that is largely intangible. Still, I wonder if this is really the best investment of Microsoft marketing dollars and perhaps a more subtle form of Apple envy.
Ed Bott has been reading the tea leaves and is predicting that Microsoft will be shipping Windows 7 in July 2009:
But here’s the reality: Windows 7 will ship before August 1. It says so right on the release notes page for the beta:
When the Beta expires on August 1, 2009, you’ll need to reinstall a released version of Windows to keep using your computer.
Yes, that could be referring to Windows Vista or XP, but I don’t think so. In fact, you can narrow the release date even further by looking at the leaked details of the Windows 7 Upgrade Program, which is reportedly due to kick off on July 1. (The always-reliable Gregg Keizer has a concise explanation of the program and its details, with some historic subtext.) For Windows Vista, Microsoft’s James O’Neill notes that the free upgrade program started on October 24th, less than two weeks before the RTM date.
Hit the link for a full explanation, but this seems quite credible to me since Windows 7 is really just a Windows Vista Service Pack with a name change and there really isn’t any need for an extended beta process.
However, the question that interests me more is how much Microsoft is going to charge the early Vista adopters for Windows 7 upgrades. If you are able to tell the pioneers by the arrows in their backs, Microsoft will merely have traded one public relations disaster for another. A related concern is that if you are a business purchasing department, how would you like to explain to the CEO why you bought Windows Vista machines when Windows 7 was imminent? An upgrade that cost money would be the icing on that cake.
Microsoft’s original 30 GB Zune MP3 players apparently started New Year’s partying a day too soon and are now frozen in hungover immobility:
Right, so this is a weird one: we’re getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless.
The crisis has been dubbed by Zune users ‘Z2K9′, due to the apparently synchronized faceplantings across the country. According to tipster Michael, the Zune users experienced something like this:
Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and… freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them
This report is consistently corroborated by literally hundreds of others across the various Zune support and fan forums.
Theories abound as to the cause of the problem, but the only thing that is certain is that only the original 30GB Zunes are affected. Microsoft says they are on the case:
We were made aware of a widespread issue facing owners of Zune 30 devices this morning. We have a technical team working hard to isolate the issue right now and will update everyone as much as possible. Thanks for your patience while we get to the bottom of this.
No New Year’s partying for the technical team I guess. Updates from the team will be made at http://zune.net/support.
Update: Microsoft has a fix and luckily it doesn’t involve any more than letting the battery discharge and reconnecting only after noon GMT on January 1, 2009. It turns out that it was a leap year problem.
