EU starts waving around the ban-hammer at Microsoft again

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Way back in 1993, Novell made a complaint to the EU that Microsoft was indulging in anti-competitive practices. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the EU eventually decided (ten years later, in 2003) that Microsoft had to make a version of Windows without Windows Media Player available, and in 2006 hit the company with massive fines, totaling £1.07 billion.

Fast-forward to 2008, and the makers of the web browser Opera filed a similar complaint, claiming that bundling IE with Windows makes it tough for others to compete. I’m not convinced that’s true – Firefox has 20% market share – but clearly someone in the EU still has it in for Microsoft, because they’ve now filed a new complaint against Microsoft saying that IE must be unbundled.

Interestingly, a similar complaint was filed against Microsoft in the USA ten years ago, but it didn’t stick, and Microsoft still bundles IE with its operating systems. It’ll be fun to see whether the EU agrees, and could result in another massive payout. Poor Microsoft. In the meantime, I’m sticking with Chrome.

(via Mashable)

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Apple forced to drop misleading iPhone ads

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Turns out that the 3G iPhone isn’t “really fast” after all. In fact, by saying so, Apple broke Advertising Standards Agency rules.The ASA upheld complaints by 17 people who said that their iPhone 3G was anything but fast, and that the TV advert had misled them.

The ad, if you’ve not seen it, goes on and on about how the iPhone 3G is ‘really fast’, and shows maps and news sites appearing in milliseconds. 3G’s good, but even in central London it’s not that good. Apple, therefore, will not be able to broadcast the advert again in its current state.

No word whether a new version of the ad will include 20-second ‘loading’ pauses and random Safari crashes.

ASA’s ajudication (via the Big British Castle)

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