Huh, I thought this was common knowledge. The reason microsoft got fined that much for IE6 is twofold:
1. They destroyed an actual market. Before IE6 it was standard for browsers to cost money and there were all sorts of alternatives. I'm not endorsing this as a good judgement, just relating the facts. 2. Microsoft was breaking into new vertical markets by exploiting an existing _MONOPOLY_ (Windows). That's illegal. You can break in all the vertical markets you want exploiting your existing products, as long as those products aren't monopolies. The iPhone definitely won't be considered one, at least not today. Again not endorsing this as a correct judgement, just saying what happened. 3. (I'm not entirely sure this played any role, though) IE6 is baked right into windows. If you're in the explorer, and you enter a URL in the location bar, it turns into IE6. You couldn't _fully_ replace the browser with something else. So, all these comments of 'Why is firefox default on linux' and 'why is safari default on the iPhone' don't make any sense. Neither #1 nor #2 applies. Linux Firefox nor iPhone Safari blew up an existing market, and neither are trying to vertically expand into the browser market by exploiting a (near) monopoly to do it. On Feb 15, 6:40 pm, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2/15/10 18:04 , CKoerner wrote:> @casper : Good story. You tried some > products, they didn't meet all > > your needs, you switched to other products. Perfect example. If > > something doesn't meet you need, choose something else. Apple is a > > company, they make products, it fits or doesn't fit your needs/ > > desires. You use it or use something else. Done. But comparing > > Microsofts situation to Apples, no. Apple has no monopoly, a big > > share in one section of the mobile phone market sure, but no monopoly. > > There are two things: first, I believe that all the Apple bashers agree > with me, that it's also a cultural fact. Debating publicly and raising > the point is a way to contribute preventing Apple to turn into a > monopoly (let's recall that most people consider the current market > pretty fluid and Apple is the only sure player of the future - if other > made big mistakes, it could turn up to be a monopoly). > > Second, I'd like to recall that UE *heavily* fined Microsoft for the > *default* installation of IExplorer and Windows Player, in a product > (Windows) where anyway you could install another browser (and make it > primary) in a few clicks. Please explain me where's the difference with > the fact that I can't install e.g. FireFox or Safari on the iPhone (of > course, it's different, it's worse!). > > -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager > Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere." > java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici -www.tidalwave.it/people > [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
