By Ingrid Marson, 21 November 2005 08:25
NEWS
Three of the largest PC vendors worldwide and a major UK retail store still have no plans to sell Microsoft's Media Player-free version of Windows, almost six months after it was released.
Microsoft started offering a version of Windows without a bundled media-player, known as Windows XP N, in June this year, to comply with last year's antitrust ruling by the European Commission.
Before Windows XP N was released, the only PC vendor that said it might pre-install the software was Fujitsu Siemens, which said it would do so on request. But, Garry Owen, the head of product marketing at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, said on Thursday there has been no customer demand for Windows XP N.
Owen said: "We haven't had customers requesting Windows XP N yet, and so as there is no demand at present, customers wanting XP N on their machine can have a PC configured with the software on a built-to-order basis from the factory."
Lenovo said its position remains the same and that demand for Windows XP N "remains low". Dell also said its position has not changed but did not comment on the demand for XP N, advising speaking to Microsoft.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said the software giant did not have any figures on Windows XP N. "As we sell it through channels we don't have any figures on how many users are buying it," she said, advising speaking "directly to retailers or someone in the [retail] channel".
Earlier this year, PC World - the UK's largest chain of computer stores - said it would not be stocking XP N as the full version of Windows XP was the same price and therefore offered better value to its customers. A PC World spokeswoman said on Thursday that this situation hasn't changed and that there had been "no demand" for XP N, as far as she was aware.
A European Commission spokesman refused to comment on the Microsoft antitrust case on Thursday. In June, an EC spokesman said it was "too early to start drawing conclusions" about the lack of interest in Windows XP N.
The continuing reluctance of PC vendors to sell Windows XP N raises serious questions over the effectiveness of the EU's antitrust ruling, particularly as Microsoft has been allowed to offer Windows XP N for the same price as the standard version of Windows XP.
RealNetworks, which was a key participant in Europe's antitrust actions against Microsoft, recently reached a settlement with Microsoft. Under the deal, Real agreed to end its involvement in antitrust investigations across the globe, in return for $460m in cash.
Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. Simon
Gosh, and we never saw that one coming.
It's clear that the requirement, whilst at first sight sensible, was never going to alter things. Ask 10 consumers if they'd like the full version, or the cut down version, both for the same price - and all 10 are going to get the full version. Most consumers don't understand or care about this case - they juts want to be able to 'click and play'. So in reality, it hasn't actually changed a thing except to make the EC commission look stupid !
What IMHO they should have done would be to insist that MS distribute Windows in such a manner that it doesn't favour their own player over others<period>. It could be done by prompting the user to select one (or more) players from a list during install, it could be done by including Reals player by default, it could be done by not installing any and prompting the user to download and install a suitable player when first required, or ...
Unfortunately, I think all this has done is to tarnish the image of the EC and will not help them in other cases.
2. Bob Hail
Spirit of the decision was right, however the practicality was never going to fly. If the action against MS was taken by consumers it may of been different but this was more about a point of law to guide future decisions.
3. Kim
Not surprising, as others have noted. I do, however, also agree on the point of the decision. By making Microsoft bend over backwards this time the EU might have persuaded MS to not bundle a media player and thus promote their own media format the next time around.
Due to MS's position and consumer inertia it will always be difficult (read: impossible) to make this kind of band aid solution work. But since the alternative is basically to do nothing and let Microsoft have their way (as have so often been the case, not least because effective remedies in the short term have been lacking), I have no option but to cheer the EU. Even if I could have wished for a more effective, and not to say elegant, solution.