Not-So-Pleasant EXPerience!

Microsoft had tagged the letters 'XP' to its OS (Windows XP) taking away the year numerals (Windows 2000) in an effort to give a totally new experience with its new product. But the events leading to the launch of XP have brought in not-so-pleasant experience to the company.

A coalition of consumer advocacy groups consisting of the Consumer Federation of America, the Consumers Union, the US Public Interest Research Group, and the Media Access Project, wants the government to seek an injunction against the XP until district court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has reviewed whether the bundling of several applications into XP violates anti-monopoly law.

The WTC attacks brought a new order from the judge that Microsoft and government lawyers should negotiate and arrive at a quick settlement. While the judge has given this order in all her wisdom, analysts believe that Microsoft would use this to its advantage.

There is every chance that during the the process of settlement talks Microsoft would go ahead and release Windows XP. And by the time the settlement talks come to a close, perhaps there would be another operating system to launch!

But the question is: Will XP bring in the desired business?

Given the current market scenario, certainly not. There is no momentum in the market to welcome a new operating system. Of course, Microsoft will garner business through the OEM route. But even there, very few vendors exhibit any optimism in the short term.

Also, in a cost-conscious market like India, partners are apprehensive whether users are ready for a new operating system after upgrading themselves to Windows 2000 last year. Very few users are answering in the positive, even among the

corporates.

When chips are down, what counts is the goodwill in the marketplace. Here too Microsoft is found wanting. Some of the comments made by partners in our lead story in 'Main Channel' express lot of resentment against the trade practices of the software giant.

One of the partners goes on to say that Microsoft is the last vendor he would like to do business with. Another says that by going in for the subscription model, Microsoft is resorting to "extortion" because in the newer versions of its software, the company is only improvising and not reinventing the wheel.

Of course, these comments are a small reflection of the ongoing antitrust case in the US where the district court had held that Microsoft operated an illegal monopoly. And this is the reason the coalition of consumer groups want the US government to bring in the injunction to stop the shipping of XP software.

At the same time, Microsoft argues that XP allows competing application software products to have equal access to Windows. But consumer groups are not convinced because of the earlier adverse ruling of the district court.

Microsoft has a strenuous task ahead. It has to take users and partners along in its mission of creating what it calls the 'consumer-driven' software.

Sylvester Lobo