EU Opens Antitrust Probe Into Microsoft

Der Spiegel ^ | 07/17/2012 | (cro—with wire reports)

[Olog-hai]

The European Commission on Tuesday opened proceedings against Microsoft to investigate claims that the US firm had failed to meet its 2009 commitment to offer users a choice screen enabling them to easily select web browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

"On the basis of information it has received, the Commission believes that Microsoft may have failed to roll out the choice screen with Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011," the EU's executive body said in a statement.

"This is despite the fact that, in December 2011, Microsoft indicated in its annual compliance report to the Commission that it was in compliance with its commitments. From February 2011 until today, millions of Windows users in the EU may have not seen the choice screen. Microsoft has recently acknowledged that the choice screen was not displayed during that period." …

[doc1019]

Everybody wants Microsoft’s money. Heck, I want some to.

[doc1019]

Sorry ... to = too

[Jonty30]

Europe’s can’t even give their software away.

[doc1019]

Europeans have software? I thought they were to busy stealing our software, and then suing us for the rights to us it.

[antiRepublicrat]

Microsoft did do bad way back when. But the wheels of justice have turned so slowly that pretty much anything governments do now is just punitive and doesn’t redress anything. The browser issue disappeared a long time ago. Microsoft only has about 50% browser share on the desktop, and that’s still in a free fall with others rising fast. Microsoft also has close to zero in mobiles, the fastest-rising segment in browser usage. Microsoft can’t possibly leverage any kind of monopoly in this area for anti-competitive purposes.

[itsahoot]

Yeah but Steve Jobs Sucks and No one but a fool would by an iPad.returning the favor

[Jeff Chandler]

2012 June:

Internet Explorer 16.7 %
Firefox 34.4 %
Chrome 41.7 %
Safari 4.1 %
Opera 2.2 %

[Erik Latranyi]

Microsoft also has close to zero in mobiles, the fastest-rising segment in browser usage.

Actually, mobile browser usage is dropping like a rock as most access to websites is being handled by "apps" rather than through a browswer.

[zeugma]

Microsoft did do bad way back when. But the wheels of justice have turned so slowly that pretty much anything governments do now is just punitive and doesn’t redress anything. The browser issue disappeared a long time ago. Microsoft only has about 50% browser share on the desktop, and that’s still in a free fall with others rising fast.

Agreed.  I hate microsoft more than the average bear, but the issue with browsers is pretty stale these days. It's typical government bovine excrement. What should be watched will be their attempts to squeeze folks (especially open source folks) out with EFI.

[antiRepublicrat]

Actually, mobile browser usage is dropping like a rock as most access to websites is being handled by "apps" rather than through a browswer.

Mobile browser usage is four times as high as it was just two years ago, now above 8%. And Safari has 65% of that. Desktop browsing is down 6% from that time. As tablets proliferate to replace notebooks and netbooks (the iPad virtually killed that market), expect mobile share to continue to rise. Source, netmarketshare.com.