The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in Taiwan has launched an antitrust probe of Microsoft centered on Windows Vista. Unbelievably, the probe came about after a complaint filed by an activist group claiming they were "forced" to buy Vista after Microsoft stopped mainstream sales of its predecessor, Windows XP, on June 30.
"We have received the complaint and are now conducting our own investigation, which may last around six months," a Taiwanese FTC spokesperson said. Microsoft faces fines of up to $800,000 if found guilty of fair trade abuses and can be ordered to halt the offending practices, according to FTC guidelines.
That said, it's hard to imagine any legal entity requiring Microsoft to begin reselling an ancient software product that is not as functional, secure, or reliable as its successor. Microsoft has already extended the support lifecycle of Windows XP several times, and kept the product on the market far longer than any previous version of Windows.
According to the Consumer Foundation, a Taiwan-based non-profit organization, Microsoft stopped selling XP solely to spur sales of Vista. However, this claim is spurious: Microsoft sold over 40 million copies of Windows Vista in Q2 2008, before it removed XP from the market. More to the point, consumers who really want XP can still get it: Through a long-standing "downgrade" option that pre-dates either OS in question, consumers can opt to get XP instead of Vista on PCs from a wide range of PC makers.
"Microsoft stopped selling XP solely to spur sales of XP"
The paradox that is Microsoft (or Paul's reporting)
If Microsoft loses this case, I'm going to file a case to demand that Microsoft start selling Windows 98 again. They cannot force customers to stop using Windows 98.
I'm suing Toyota. They're forcing me to by the 2008 model when I really want the 2007.
And here I thought the frivolous lawsuit was a strictly American phenomenon.
And apparently plenty still prefer XP over that steaming pile of Vista ...
"New data: 1 in 3 business PCs drop Vista for Windows XP
"When Microsoft stopped selling new licenses to Windows XP on June 30, it gave users and PC makers a "downgrade" loophole so that those who wanted XP could still get it, even though they still had to buy a Vista license.
"According to data from the exo.performance.network, 35 percent of Vista-equipped PCs have been downgraded to Windows XP. "That's way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista," says Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributing editor, whose company Devil Mountain Software developed the Windows Sentinel tool and analyzes the exo.performance.network data. (More than 3,000 PCs are monitored worldwide using the tool, in both the free InfoWorld Windows Sentinel version and in the more extensive version provided to Devil Mountain clients.)
"The idea of a downgrade option is nothing new for enterprise licenses, since it can take several years for large organizations to plan out and deploy significant new software, under schedules that bear no resemblance to a vendor's product schedules. But in a twist of this policy, individual users can also "downgrade" to XP from Vista Business or Ultimate (and later restore Vista if they desire at no extra cost). Most major PC makers offer users the option of downgrading to XP on at least some models, typically those sold to small businesses and gamers."
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