It's very simple. By installing their program from the off people are far more likely to use their program than any other even if they know that others exist. Imagine if Opera was installed on every PC by default instead of IE - what do you think the usage graphs of each browser would then look like? IE has dominance because most people just turn on their computer and use it rather than fiddling around installing alternatives - especially within industry. Back in the Windows 95 days you couldn't even uninstall IE if you wanted to.
Yes I think most people understand that, but if you don't include a browser with the OS, how do you expect people to get online? I imagine if users discovered that their OS didn't come with an OS, they wouldn't be too happy, or even buy the OS again. Alternatively you could ship with it every browser under the sun, but in my experience there are only three browsers which are even worth using, FF3, IE, and Opera.
But why are Microsoft being hounded for this? Apple ships the Safari browser with their OS, why aren't they subject to the same treatment as Microsoft? is it because they have a lower market share so it isn't worth the hassle?
That's like saying 'the average person will be completely satisfied with a Ford Focus and thus we're going to allow Ford to automatically send you a Focus on your 17th birthday'. It is not about how satisfied a person might be or how good the product might be, it is about how it warps and negatively effects the market. Free market principles tell us that products should start on an equal footing (thus most of the point of the EEA). Any advantage that one product has that is not available to any other company's product should thus (and usually is) investigated to see if it is anti-competitive.
For more info see Articles 81 and 82
Yes, but people have the choice to find a better browser if they aren't satisfied. The argument being made to exclude the inclusion of IE with Windows could be applied to every other program/utility included with Windows, would you then force MS to strip everything away from it except for the Kernel and UI because it might be anti-competitive?
From what I have read, this investigation began because Opera filed a complaint, as they believed IE was stealing their share of the market.
Reg Article said:
The ruling came in a Statement of Objections from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission and was issued after browser specialist Opera filed a complaint with the Commission a year ago. Opera alleged Microsoft was continuing to abuse its dominant position by tying its browser to Windows and by not following web protocols.
If you look
here, Firefox now has almost 45% of the browser market. As Windows makes up the bulk of systems out there, it shows that many of these people are capable of downloading a different browser because they aren't satisfied with IE. And oh look, Opera still has 2.4% despite the freedom of choice.
