By the time Microsoft Corp settled its antitrust case with the US Justice Department, the Internet browser war that precipitated it had already been fought -- with Microsoft the victor.
In the ensuing years, technology has moved so fast -- and the legal process so slowly by comparison -- that the software behemoth similarly won other market battles before legal challenges could be resolved.
PHOTO: EPA
That may not be so with the European Commission's expected ruling against Microsoft yesterday.
The EU's executive body was expected to fine Microsoft and order the company to offer a version of its flagship operating system in Europe that has been stripped of Windows Media Player.
And that gives European regulators a rare chance to influence Microsoft's current behavior, rather than trying to make amends for alleged wrongdoing against already sunken competitors.
Microsoft is just one of the companies battling over how people will hear and see music and videos online when a market now in its infancy matures.
"The EU decision comes when the media wars, if you could call it that, are ongoing," said Joe Wilcox, senior analyst with Jupiter Research.
About 34 percent of US Internet users played a song or watched video using Microsoft's Windows Media Player in February, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. That compares to about 20 percent who used rival RealNetworks' format, and about 9 percent who used Apple's Quick Time.
Other media players also are snagging smaller audiences, and some people likely used more than one player.
That wasn't the case in the browser battle between Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. By the time the courts ruled that Microsoft abused its monopoly when it included its browser with Windows, Netscape was virtually vanquished.
Experts say Microsoft still holds about 90 percent of that market -- about the same as its desktop operating system share -- and that's unlikely to change.
The potential for competitors to benefit from a negative ruling in the EU case is particularly strong if Microsoft is forced to sell a version of Windows without the media player at a slightly cheaper price, said Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media.
That would allow other media player companies such as RealNetworks to offer computer manufacturers their players for free, improving computer makers' slim profit margins and giving a competitor the immediate consumer access that Microsoft has enjoyed until now.
"Without a doubt it will create an opportunity for [competitors]," Leigh said.
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the company believed it was premature to speculate on any potential market impact.
If Microsoft were forced to ship a version of Windows without its media player, that could also mean it would have to start persuading users to download its player from the Internet -- just like its competitors.
Even in that case, analyst Ted Schadler of Forrester Research says, Microsoft's dominance may again give it an advantage.
"Microsoft has incredible brand recognition," Schadler said. "It's easier to convince people [to download the Windows Media Player] than to convince people to download the Real player."
Schadler said the overall market for music and video online could suffer as many people opt not to download any media player at all. He thinks the best option for all involved would be to include a number of players with Windows.
Wilcox disagrees, saying most Internet users know how to download media and software.
RealNetworks, which also is suing Microsoft for antitrust violations in US federal court, says an EU ruling against Microsoft would help it but isn't critical for survival.
"We have a plan to succeed in this space with or without an [EU] ruling," said Bob Kimball, Real's general counsel.
Microsoft has defended its business conduct and accused RealNetworks of using its lawsuit to try to gain market share.
Regardless of how the legal battles play out, some people, even those at Microsoft, say this may never be a winner-take-all market. Will Poole, a senior vice president at Microsoft, told journalists in February that the media player market is "not a VHS/Beta thing," in reference to the war over video formats, in which VHS eventually dominated.
Wilcox, the Jupiter analyst, said he believes the online media battle may eventually be more about the format in which online content is recorded and delivered than which media player is easiest to find.
For example, he says, Apple has succeeded with its music store because people like the variety of songs available -- not because of what player they use. Also, most players can deliver songs and video in some competing formats.
That the market remains so competitive may even raise the question of whether the courts should intervene at all, Wilcox said.
"If there is plenty of competition," he asked, "is there a need for an enforcement action in the first place?"
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)