Comments on: Ballmer: All companies should be allowed to innovate

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vows to fight the European Commission's antitrust ruling, arguing that all companies, even ones with a near monopoly, have a right to improve their products.

What is he talking about ?

WMP is no way as good as the other two big names Real &
QuickTime. I've used all three on PC & Mac and QuickTime
seems to be the best. The only reason WMP is popular is
Windows OS dominance in the PC make. If it didn't have this
monopoly WMP would be used by very few people. This is not
innovation it is stifling innovation for the consumer.

[DarthGuybrush]

Yeah right...

At least WMP doesn't annoy with the adverts like Real.

[sunergeos]

What's good for the goose...

It is unfortunate that anyone from Microsoft would criticize a competitor for seeking a level playing field in the global market. The remark that was made was about "having their day in court in another country." What made that comment unfortunate is that Microsoft did the exact same thing in their case against Lindows. They lost in court here in the US, so they took their day in court outside the US.

What's good for the goose...

[DarthGuybrush]

What a load of...

Microsoft should just pull the plug on Europe and watch them squirm. What a load of crap this decision is. They might as well order Mandrake to pull KDE out of their Linux distribution.

[bjbrock]

Innovate?

Microsoft is not doing or trying anything new. They are using tried and true practices around since man took his first step. There is absolutely nothing new about fraud, untruths, half truths. Con men have been around for a long time. Their OS isn't innovative either. People have been piling junk on top of junk and ruining products for a long time as well. MS has been found out about finally. The ratio of pro and con feedback has become clearly a landside against MS and their practices. People simply do not like being lied to or ripped off by anyone. Once the consumer finally gets all of the facts, there is but one conclusion to make. If the press would quit their campaign of disinformation, the market would take care of the problem without legal intervention. And as more and more find the facts on their own, the press is fast become a joke with no credibility. They took up with MS but I promise, MS won't do one thing to help them when they are called on to explain the irresponsible job that they have been doing.

[Cartman_MCP]

He is damn right

Instead of trying to sue Microsoft out of its way, Real would be better off coming up with a decent and maybe innovative player. It's wrong to try and hold back initiatives of including software such as Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer in Windows, because at the same with the evolution of computers, the needs of the consumers get more and more diverse. So every company should have the right to innovate and meet the needs of its customers, as Ballmer said. Wotherwise we would still be running DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups today.

Besides that, even if Microsoft would not include Media Player in Windows, RealPlayer would be my very LAST choice of media player. It's full of ads, has a nasty interface and comes with all kind of crappy addons I don't want or need. So... go Microsoft!!!