Microsoft and its antitrust suits

If you live in the European Union, you may have noticed that ‘N’ versions of Microsoft Windows software have surfaced, without certain features such as Windows Media Player or Windows Internet Explorer 7/8. This is due to European Union consumer watchdogs raising concerns about the problems in competitive practice law that this may throw up. Previously the European Union has fined Microsoft over a billion dollars due to anticompetitive activity and has no doubt been subject to other questioning in other parts of the world. This is the reason for the surfacing of the ‘N’ versions: Microsoft, through the inclusion of its Windows Media Player and Windows Internet Explorer programs in its operating systems, has been taking an unfair slice of the market share of media players and web browsers. Microsoft has since promised to offer a range of internet browsers upon installation of its operating systems, a move which will no doubt please European Union anti-competition watchdogs and provide consumers with a much wider choice when browsing the Internet and listening to music, radio shows, podcasts and watching television shows and movies. Hopefully this choice is extended to other parts of the world where the action was not as a result of intervention by the government!