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Some people seem to have a short circuit in their minds when they try to explain why Windows has such an enormous desktop market share.
Some of them have the delusion that Windows is technically better than the competition. It never was. It isnt now. And, considering how Vista is staggering along, it never will be.
No, Microsoft wins because it does whatever it needs to do to win.
If that means strong-arming the PC companies, so be it. If that means breaking the law, thats fine too.
To quote Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in his ruling against Microsoft in the U.S. versus Microsoft anti-trust case, “Microsoft paid vast sums of money, and renounced many millions more in lost revenue every year, in order to induce firms to take actions that would help enhance Internet Explorers share of browser usage at Navigators expense. … In fact, Microsoft has expended wealth and foresworn opportunities to realize more in a manner and to an extent that can only represent a rational investment if its purpose was to perpetuate the applications barrier to entry.”
That was in 2000. Fast-forward to 2007 and what do we find?
Fortune reports that Windows is used on as many as 90 percent of Chinas 120 million PCs, because of piracy and because Microsofts own prices have dropped so low that a student can now buy a combination package of Windows and Office for $3.