I’ve read somewhere that MS is cancelling the “E” -versions of Windows 7. Did I misread that?
The E versions being the European SKU shipping without browsers? Well, I paid for one of those, and I haven’t been notified with any changes being made to my order (and I’m pretty sure Amazon would cover its ass in that case), so I don’t think so.
Why would they? They’d be prevented from retailing in Europe if they did, and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to unleash some mad digital distribution ploy based in Sealand to avoid EU regulations.
Yes, that makes sense. I know I read it somewhere, but it was probably a rumor.
Haven’t you guys bothered to read the rest of this thread?
Yeah, I’ll give you that but it’s not all that analogous to the issue at the heart of what we’re primarily discussing here and I’m not entirely convinced that a monopoly on a single platform in a space (mobile phones) that has a huge amount of competition anyway constitutes an actual monopoly.
More transparency in Apple’s approach to app approval would be welcome though. I like to give people/companies the benefit of the doubt (even MS) and my own take is that Apple are simply overwhelmed by the number of apps that are submitted and bad decisions are routinely made as a result. That doesn’t excuse them (they should staff/train up) but it does mitigate in my view, assuming that I’m correct.
While I agree with you right now, I will say that for Apple it’s only a matter of time until they land in the spotlight of EU antitrust regulators. It’s easy to say they are fine when they have low market share. Based on their rate of growth with the iPhone though, things may indeed change.
Looks like Microsoft and the EU have finally agreed on a browser ballot screen, although I’m sure Opera will find some other thing to complain about.