The Economist (subscription only) has an interesting leader on Microsoft this week, which puts very succinctly the trouble with Microsoft. It notes the anti-trust settlement in the US in 2002 had little impact on the company's behaviour, and that "Microsoft's exploitation of its monopoly will continue as long as the monopoly itself does". Google and Apple (in search and music, respectively) will be the company's next "victims", it says.
"Isn't this simply a matter of Microsoft competing vigorously? The strange thing is that its products invariably succeed in PC-based markets where the dominance of Windows provides an advantage... in other markets that have nothing to do with PCs, such as mobile phones, set-top boxes and games consoles, the company is far less successful. Odd, that."The paper concludes the only way to stop the "too-mighty" company is through a breakup, because Linux is unlikely to put up a proper challenge to Windows, and the rents it earns from its Windows monopoly far outweigh the bad publicity and legal battles that the monopoly generates.
