Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

[GreyGeek]

http://www.businessinsider.com/htc-p...d-phone-2011-5

Microsoft gets $5 for every HTC phone running Android, according to Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, who released a big report on Microsoft this morning.

Microsoft is getting that money thanks to a patent settlement with HTC over intellectual property infringement.

Microsoft is suing other Android phone makers, and it's looking for $7.50 to $12.50 per device, says Pritchard.

We knew hardware companies were paying Microsoft, we just didn't know how much. (In October Steve Ballmer said, "Android has a patent fee. It's not like Android's free.")

Notice how Microsoft is suing manufacturors who install the Android OS on their products, and not Google, which makes it? IF there is patent infringement, which I doubt, one would suspect that Microsoft would go after the violator, which is Google. What they are doing is erecting tollbooths on the economic highway for any cars not built by Microsoft, as if Microsoft, a very late entrant into the mobil OS ecology, was the creator of the and patent holder for that technology.


What MS is really doing is using its economic muscle to extort bogus patent royalties from small fry unable to afford to defend themselves against these costly and outrageous tactics. That the FCC, DOJ or USTPO have not reigned in this travesty of "intellectual property" speaks volumes as to who is doing the regulating.

This tactic is not the same as the MS + Novell deal, where Novell's CEO sold out for money. But, if no legal action is taken Microsoft will get bolder and began suing small Linux distro makers to put them out of business in the USA. Canonical could be on that list, especially if Linux distro makers began charging for downloading ISO in these difficult economic times.

[charles052]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Linux is such a small share of the market. Why do they care at all? Every single computer I've ever seen, with the exception of my own, has run either Windows or is a Mac. And every time I suggest Linux to a friend or colleague who is having computer issues, they get that 'look' on their face as if learning to run Linux is like learning a foreign language.

This stinks of Greed.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

In February of 2008 Steve Ballmer gave a talk and presented a slide which showed the breakdown in desktop market shares. It showed that Linux had about 12% and Apple had about 10%. Windows had only 70%. That was before the full failure of VISTA became known. VISTA drove even more PC users to Linux and Apple. That is in the USA. In other countries the Linux desktop market share is more than twice that.

Given those facts, Microsoft is concerned because the Linux desktop market share is not a "small share". Since 2008 Apple's market share has grown more than Linux's but Microsoft's has continued to drop. To make matters worse, the Win7 Phone OS is NOT gaining traction. In fact, Microsoft has to distort the meaning of marketshare by including those copies of Win7 Phone that are yet in the retail channel or setting on retail shelves to inflate its market share. Three months after its release Microsoft put the Win7 Phone market share at 2.7%. Three months after that data from independent sources showed that the Win7 Phone's market share has dropped to half what Microsoft claimed. Microsoft's "deal" with Nokia, in which Nokia commits suicide to become a mere hardware manufacturer dependent on Microsoft, I.E., just like DELL, didn't help because Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 40% to 17% and most observers expect it to evaporate entirely by the end of this year, which is about the time the new Win7 powered Nokia smartphone is expected to be released. How it will do any better than the HTC or other versions is just another definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).

About the only smartphone/OS/software option Microsoft has left is to extort "royalty" payments from vendors using FOSS smartware by claiming that Linux is built using MS IP, which is ludicrous. IF Microsoft believed that they'd sue Canonical, IBM, RedHat, HP, Intel, and every other corporation which utilizes FOSS in their products. That they chose small, defensless firms establishes that they are nothing but thugs using untested patent claims as a club. This was shown by Barns & Noble.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/27...es-exorbitant/ even though Microsoft tried to conceal their tactics using an NDA.

In a case before the US Supreme Court Microsoft is arguing against its own patent revenue model:
http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/02/13/sup...ment/id=15298/
plainly talking out of both sides of its mouth.

[teh603]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Honestly, I don't see this as being something that FOSS is going to win in the long haul. American businessmen are programmed to look for places like these where they can inflict as much abuse as they can, for their own personal profit, without any care for the future.

Only way we're going to ever stop this is to say that world domination is not a viable business plan, and that would require the end of American capitalism as we know it.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

The last post that I made at a certain "other" disto....outlined EXACTLY what GG posted.....that MS....

Which ALREADY had "the vote of the people" VOX POPULI....by the clicking of their little mouseys and their typing of ctrl-alt-F/17 just could not let it rest at that....

AND ...I was roundly derided.....cast scorn upon....laughed at....all of the NORMAL way of people who think that they are SMARTER THAN YOU.....

and guess what..... 6 years later....i was right......they were wrong....

but......they are still in the same little pond....croaking to each other "what a good boy am I"....

While MicroSith SCREWS PEOPLE FROM THE GET GO....


political correctness will only put the tombstone on the head of Linux laying in the ground...


I had as a "signature"....."Live Free or Die!"

And I was SCOFFED AT.....well......who was right and who was WRONG....

Yes....MS should be tried in the world court for one simple thing:....Predatory Practices.

But no.....even in the "world court" ....all the people who SHOUT TO THE ROOFTOPS....decrying such..... are now....shown to have feet of clay.

> > > > > > > > > > > > >

woodsmoke

[charles052]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

In February of 2008 Steve Ballmer gave a talk and presented a slide which showed the breakdown in desktop market shares. It showed that Linux had about 12% and Apple had about 10%. Windows had only 70%. That was before the full failure of VISTA became known. VISTA drove even more PC users to Linux and Apple. That is in the USA. In other countries the Linux desktop market share is more than twice that.

Given those facts, Microsoft is concerned because the Linux desktop market share is not a "small share". Since 2008 Apple's market share has grown more than Linux's but Microsoft's has continued to drop. To make matters worse, the Win7 Phone OS is NOT gaining traction. In fact, Microsoft has to distort the meaning of marketshare by including those copies of Win7 Phone that are yet in the retail channel or setting on retail shelves to inflate its market share. Three months after its release Microsoft put the Win7 Phone market share at 2.7%. Three months after that data from independent sources showed that the Win7 Phone's market share has dropped to half what Microsoft claimed. Microsoft's "deal" with Nokia, in which Nokia commits suicide to become a mere hardware manufacturer dependent on Microsoft, I.E., just like DELL, didn't help because Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 40% to 17% and most observers expect it to evaporate entirely by the end of this year, which is about the time the new Win7 powered Nokia smartphone is expected to be released. How it will do any better than the HTC or other versions is just another definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).

About the only smartphone/OS/software option Microsoft has left is to extort "royalty" payments from vendors using FOSS smartware by claiming that Linux is built using MS IP, which is ludicrous. IF Microsoft believed that they'd sue Canonical, IBM, RedHat, HP, Intel, and every other corporation which utilizes FOSS in their products. That they chose small, defensless firms establishes that they are nothing but thugs using untested patent claims as a club. This was shown by Barns & Noble.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/27...es-exorbitant/ even though Microsoft tried to conceal their tactics using an NDA.

In a case before the US Supreme Court Microsoft is arguing against its own patent revenue model:
http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/02/13/sup...ment/id=15298/
plainly talking out of both sides of its mouth.

Cool post!

Never knew that Microsoft lost that much of the market. Now I'm curious as to how the future is going to unfold for them. If nothing else, their demise (if it ever comes) will make room for more and better operating systems in the future.

[teh603]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Yes....MS should be tried in the world court for one simple thing:....Predatory Practices.

That's impossible in the current political atmosphere, but that's because nobody's going to get anything done without a veto-proof congress. And the gods help us if either of the parties gets that.

The problem is, the current implementation of capitalism requires as much predation as possible. Its a sort of vicious Darwinism, where the strong get stronger by forcing the weak into positions where they can't ever become strong, and destroying those who try. Kinda like a schoolyard bully who forces his victim to commit suicide by ruling out all other possibilities.

Not that its a healthy implementation. Its not. Its destroying the nation as I type this.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Yes....MS should be tried in the world court for one simple thing:....Predatory Practices.

That's impossible in the current political atmosphere, but that's because nobody's going to get anything done without a veto-proof congress. And the gods help us if either of the parties gets that.

I agree. Both political parties are filled with self-serving, amoral bullies, who are plundering the assets of this country for themselves and their cronies (unions & "non-profits" on the left, corporations on the right) as fast as they can.

The problem is, the current implementation of capitalism requires as much predation as possible. Its a sort of vicious Darwinism, where the strong get stronger by forcing the weak into positions where they can't ever become strong, and destroying those who try. Kinda like a schoolyard bully who forces his victim to commit suicide by ruling out all other possibilities.

Excellent analogy...

Not that its a healthy implementation. Its not. Its destroying the nation as I type this.

Faster than people realize. I sometimes wonder when the tipping point will be reached and someone "steps forward" to bring stability and security, "for the children"... i.e., a dictatorship.

[ardvark71]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

And the gods help us

There is only One.

Regards...

[Linkmaster]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

This is an interesting post, and I've learned some new things about a company I was only so-so about to begin with. I wish that microsoft wasn't this bad, because they have released some good things. I'm referring to the XBox/360 and the Zune. I'm very partial to both, though sadly I haven't gotten the Zune to work with Linux yet.
Regardless, the fact that they are suing out smaller companies is worysome. If its not stopped, they very well could sue companies like Lenovo[which I believe offer computers that have Linux pre-installed on some]. The reason is that Lenovo is[last I checked] a branch of Dell..and since M$ is holding Dell by the throat...

[teh603]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Faster than people realize. I sometimes wonder when the tipping point will be reached and someone "steps forward" to bring stability and security, "for the children"... i.e., a dictatorship.

Dictatorships don't last. Monarchies last, but that requires such things as a constitution and parliment. I wouldn't mind a monarchy; I'd be able to move up from the arguable lower class into the lower nobility without too much effort.

That having been said, if we were to get a monarchy, I don't think it'd be from the so-called middle and upper classes. Ours don't have any of the sense of obligation and duty, and ability to plan ahead for future generations required to be a successful monarch. Hell, most of the boomers have already decided they're not going to leave anything for their children. Not even a functioning legal system.

This is an interesting post, and I've learned some new things about a company I was only so-so about to begin with. I wish that microsoft wasn't this bad, because they have released some good things. I'm referring to the XBox/360 and the Zune. I'm very partial to both, though sadly I haven't gotten the Zune to work with Linux yet.
Regardless, the fact that they are suing out smaller companies is worysome. If its not stopped, they very well could sue companies like Lenovo[which I believe offer computers that have Linux pre-installed on some]. The reason is that Lenovo is[last I checked] a branch of Dell..and since M$ is holding Dell by the throat...

Honestly, I see a big difference between M$ computer unit and Xbox unit. The Xbox unit is actually competing in a market with real competition, or at least was until Sony shot themselves in the foot by removing the Boot Other OS option from the PS3 in a firmware update a year or so ago.

The trouble is, those anticompetitive practices are considered a perfectly valid innovation by any American business major, and are part of the ethical grey areas that a CEO contract team is expected to wallow in so the company can keep their edge.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Microsoft's revenue model ... Extortion

Faster than people realize. I sometimes wonder when the tipping point will be reached and someone "steps forward" to bring stability and security, "for the children"... i.e., a dictatorship.

Dictatorships don't last. Monarchies last, but that requires such things as a constitution and parliment. I wouldn't mind a monarchy; I'd be able to move up from the arguable lower class into the lower nobility without too much effort.

They even last longer than the lifetime of an individual, because of inheritance. North Korea, for example. China, Cuba, Myamar, several Middle East states, several African states. Then there are the dictatorships of Presidents gone crazy with "Executive Orders" powers, or Courts with judicial activism seeing laws in the shadows of the penumbras, and not seeing them when they've been in plain sight for 200 years.

.....
The trouble is, those anticompetitive practices are considered a perfectly valid innovation by any American business major, and are part of the ethical grey areas that a CEO contract team is expected to wallow in so the company can keep their edge.

Unfortunately, what you say is true. Not only anti-competitive, buy hostile preemptive attacks using proxies and surrogates, etc... All done with impunity because judges have been bribed to ignore or "work around" laws like the Sherman-Clayton Anti-Trust Act, and Congress ... what can you NOT say negatively about Congress that time hasn't proven correct... beginning with MS bribing Congress to give it special legislation that enabled it to charge the US TAX PAYER for the development costs of Win95 by paying its developers with stock options printed up in the back room, and when the developer cashes in the stop options (at his/her own expense) MS applies for a "tax reimbursement" for expenses it never accrued! In fact, it was Microsoft offloading its payroll expenses onto the US tax payer that gave it a stock market advantage by showing greater profits than it should have been able to do, putting competitors like IBM, Novel, Sun, Apple and others at an economic disadvantage. This kind of fraud has been well documented.