Microsoft

Apple SWOT In the 2011 Fortune 500 rankings Apple finished 35th, jumping from the 56th position it established the year before. As of January 2012 Apple surpassed Exxon to become the largest Corporation in the world. Apple’s rapid climb from virtual bankruptcy in 1996 is an incredible story. (Eberhard) Strengths: The products The company’s reputation as an innovator Strong, loyal following Control over applications and operating systems Brand Awareness

Weaknesses – Apple’s “All In” philosophy has some drawbacks – for example, my Windows phone will not sync on my Macbook. This perceived “if you’re not one of us, you are one of them” mindset makes new converts to Apple products wary. Apple doesn’t “fail” often but when they do it makes major headlines. Apple Maps served to show how big of a blunder one Apple branded failure can really be. (Goldman). The lack of forethought into the iPad.

No matter how great of a success – and it certainly is – Microsoft’s Surface’s screen size and inclusion of USB ports and a keyboard is going to make the next generation of the iMac – which could very well be a super charged iPad with all the required ports and a new OS – make Apple look like it is playing catch up instead of leading the innovation themselves. Closed source applications and operating system Brand perceived as “elitist” Diversity of products Cost of product vs. competitors Over saturation (iPhone)

Opportunities – Apple is readying a Pandora like streaming music service and Apple TV could change the way we view our programing much in the same way the iPod and iTunes revolutionized the music business. Music streaming service Apple TV Shifting more production to US factories The Chinese Market yet to be fully tapped Integration with automakers Threats – Basically everyone who isn’t Apple – Google/Android, Microsoft/Windows 8, Samsung, the list goes on – if you plug it in and talk, listen touch, type, or surf on it and it isn’t an Apple, it is a threat to Apple.

Apple’s threats come from all directions because Apple not only produces product, it also produces all of the operating systems for it’s product and tightly controls what content outside vendors can sell on the App Store. Changes in economy Changes in marketplace Chinese labor controversies Google’s Android OS Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Surface tablet Windows retail stores http://www. heavy. com/news/2012/12/google-maps-returns-to-iphone/ http://robeberhard. com/? page_id=130 Samsung SWOT Samsung was founded in 1938 as a fish and vegetable grocer. After the Korean War, Samsung’s assets were divested and the grocery business was laid to rest.

In 1969 SEC, the Samsung Electronic Corporation was created, beginning the Samsung as we know them today. Samsung now produces televisions, mobile phones, tablet computers, DVD and Blu-Ray players, MP3 players, cameras and semiconductors. Over the years as they acquired new business and branched out into new ventures they have been subject to a variety of lawsuits involving copyright infringement, including those with watchmaker Rolex, mobile phone maker Ericsson and most recently Apple Computer. Apple recently surpassed Samsung to take the number one spot in marketshare in the mobile phone category. Tinari) Samsung’s partnership with Google has provided a consistent OS (operating system) for it’s mobile devices with Android. Android is an “open source” operating system, which, unlike Apple’s, allows for third party users to openly contribute application and programs without company interference or oversight. While this gives users a wider variety of applications, there is no quality control over them, nor is there a way for Samsung to provide the customer service often required of these applications as Samsung has no part in their creation and distribution.

Samsung recently won one of many lawsuits with Apple over the design of their popular Galaxy tablet. The recently released Microsoft Surface tablet and the Kindle Fire are Samsung’s largest non-Apple competition in this market, however there are a number of super low cost tablets coming out of China that are also relying on the Android OS. These low cost, low quality tablets are forcing Samsung to advertise more aggressively to assure they are not lumped into this sub group of iPad knock offs. Strengths: Wide range of products Multiple partnerships with other brands, particularly Google and their Android operating system Growing marketshare

High brand value Open source operating system Weaknesses: Lack of control over product once it’s partners become involved Slow to release new product Lack of focus on one core product Lower price means lower perceived quality Complaints of not being “user friendly” Opportunities: Open more retail outlets Partnership with new brands means more innovation Reintroduce phones with more user friendly interface Capitalize on Apple’s failures Provide more customer service Threats: Continuing legal battle with Apple over copyright infringement Low cost competition in the tablet market

Emulation phones with Android OS weaken Samsung’s image Microsoft’s Surface tablet Windows Retail stores Changes in marketplace Changes in economy image: www. businessweek. com image: www. talkandroid. com image: www. obamapacman. com http://www. intomobile. com/2013/02/01/apple-grabs-34-mobile-market-share-passing-samsung-become-1/ http://www. businessweek. com/articles/2012-07-03/samsungs-smartphone-pitch-fuels-mobile-ad-boom http://www. talkandroid. com/154223-samsung-ramped-up-advertising-in-2012-outspent-apple-by-68-million/ http://obamapacman. com/2010/11/fail-samsung-galaxy-tab-flash-pop-up-ad-annoys-cnn-users/

With the use of Microsoft Outlook Express, it will be easier for business inclined individuals to stay on track one’s mail and the schedules for that matter.  The E-mail, for instance, plays a major role in bridging people together.  In the field of business, it may help individuals share documents and files 24 hours a day, seven days a week with Microsoft Outlook Express features. Find files / mails faster: Outlook helps create intellect of all the e-mail received.  Search Folders or fundamental folders include views of all e-mails match to the precise exploration measure, aside from that, it lets you speedily split significant messages from those you desire to disregard. Thus, search folders as well ensign precedence messages first, so as not to waste time in deleting and reading messages you do not want / expect.

Further, it also separates out most of junk mails to a different folder, un-cluttering the inbox. In addition to that, working offline makes one use an e-mail account through Microsoft Exchange Server; can work offline while away from the office or if net link is too sluggish. Outlook then tries to connect to the server when desired to or when chosen to do so in the “Send/Receive” item.  Moreover, business contact manager feature integrates with Outlook, turning the address book into a potent gizmo that can create, track, and administer your business associates, sales leads and various opportunities.  With all these features, it is evident that Microsoft Outlook makes business easier.  Hassle-free and sufficient managing of files through this software benefits any profession, at that.

Bill Gates: Man of Magnitude A man of magnitude is someone who has made an impact on society and has done something or created something for the greater good of the country or world. I think what best describes a great man, or woman is a quote from Bob Marley, ““The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. ” This quote is close me because of the work my grandfather did with his business and providing work for those who would most likely not be hired.

A great person is someone who does what they feel is right no matter what is thought of them. Bill Gates is what I would consider a “Man of Magnitude. ” I chose Bill Gates as my man of magnitude because of all the things he has done for education, global healthcare, and extreme poverty stricken countries. What I relate to with Bill Gates is that technology has become so relevant in education. In schools that cannot keep up with the ever evolving technology, the students will fall behind and not have all the same opportunities that students in more affluent areas may have.

Bill and his wife, Melinda, are the founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which gives many grants including the expansion for immunization for children, Improvements in seed and soil for African farmers, and multiple libraries. Greatness: The quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent. According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website Fact Page, as of September 2012 there are 19 Grant Commitments throughout the world that total up to more than five billion dollars.

Someone who grants that amount of money to people in need is my definition of greatness. Someone who uses their power and wealth is something that I find remarkably great. “Guided by the belief that every life has equal value” is a quote that is posted on every page of the Gates Foundation website. Only a person with the consideration for others would commit their money to charity and to help end the extreme poverty. Bill Gates has contributed to the greater good by globally enhancing healthcare by providing more opportunities for immunization children, to educe extreme poverty in African countries, and to expand educational opportunities and access to technology. Bill Gates has also received numerous awards for philanthropic work. (“Bill Gates”). There have been many inventive entrepreneurs throughout history, but not many of them have applied their wealth to meet the needs of the less fortunate. Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have endowed a foundation with $28. 8 Billion. Through this foundation the Gates couple is able to funnel the enormous profits from Microsoft and other Gates’ ventures to help attack global heath and education problems.

Bill Gates has targeted AIDS in Africa as one of his major health causes. He is also known for providing large amounts of computer equipment to schools in low income communities to help bring children of impoverished families into the world of technical advance. Bill Gates is a man of magnitude who has contributed to the greater good because he has touched the lives of millions of people through his philanthropic initiatives. Men or Women of magnitude are people of honor, faith, substance. People who will do whatever they can to help those around them.

Great people who also have the fortune to be very wealth are people who have even more power and opportunity to do great things for their country, and even many other countries. Great people are noble and kind, and they have compassion for those in need. Great people give their change to the homeless, or buy a candy bar for the Boys Club. Great people are visionaries, that believe in a brighter future. Bill Gates is among those great people. Works Cited “About the Foundation. ” Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. N. p. , 1999. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. “Bill Gates. ” 2013. The Biography Channel. March 2011. Web. Feb 12 2013.

Description of the Administration

Sanolabor is a big sized selling and distribution company in Slovenia. It chiefly deals with health care, pharmaceutical and laboratory equipments acquired from more than 500 makers and providers both internationally and locally ( Sanolabor. Corporate Profile [ Online ] ) . In 2000 the company was awarded an ISO 9001:2000 quality direction certification for its proviso of quality services.

The company is divided into two chief parts ; the retail subdivision which was apparatus to cover with individualized demands ( Sanolabor. Retail. Offer [ Online ] ) and the sweeping section which supplies wellness establishments, scientific establishments and industry with merchandises like ; research lab plans, medical and hospital equipment and a scope of other commercial merchandises ( Sanolabor. Wholesale [ Online ] ) .

Description of the Implementation Method

Sanolabor decided to roll-out their new Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) utilizing the rapid execution. Software execution methods ( Anon. , 2001, pg39 ) suggests This technique is used to deploy systems whose faculties have already been predefined taking to a fast and direct alteration over from the bequest system to the new one, as a consequence companies are sometimes forced to alter their concern processes to suit the system. In Software execution methods ( Anon. , 2001, pg39 ) Rapid execution is categorized into two parts there is: The preconfigured faculty where the user accepts the basic constellation of the system and the predefined concern procedures and the Vanilla Implementation where the user gets to analyse and take the map parametric quantities of the already preconfigured package. Some of the advantages that come with Rapid execution are:

1. The undertaking costs less.
2. There is speedy determination devising.
3. There are minimum concern breaks while implementing the system.

Some of the disadvantages of utilizing this method are:

1. Companies may non hold clip custom-make the package to suit their concern procedures.
2. Most of the clip the top direction is required to take part and do speedy determinations.
3. It is normally inflexible and delivers a system with limited functionality.

Summary of instance survey

Sanolabor decided to follow a Microsoft Excel-based system due to the addition of planetary competition and rapid alteration in the market. The system would assist the company supervise client information and bring forth analytical studies but because of its engineering it became unstable and could non work decently. Sing that a alteration was needed a undertaking squad was setup its undertaking was to present a to the full functional CRM system. The undertaking commenced on January 2006 and its timeline was set to one twelvemonth, the first aim of this squad was to look for a seller who would be able to supply a system whose characteristics replicated the old one together with some improved maps.

The seller ‘s first undertaking was to capture user demands and within a short clip the first paradigm was delivered. By this clip the undertaking squad had grown to 42 people, they were divided into three groups and sanolabor ‘s computing machines were chosen as a testing environment. A preparation session was held in July and failed due deficiency of proper planning. Two months subsequently another preparation session was constituted and because of better be aftering the consequences were deemed successful.

Data migration was initiated following and completed without any challenges ; one time this was done the CRM was quickly implemented and shortly after jobs at the operational and managerial degree began to harvest up. Another job which was encountered was that 60 workstations crashed due to incompatibility issues with an interface developed by the seller, the company besides changed its concern procedures to suit the package. The system was monitored for four months with errors being reported to the seller and after subsequent corrections were made it became stable and the undertaking was closed in March 2007. ( 286 words )

Critical analysis of the success of the execution method used

Bing that sanolabor did non see the concluding version of their CRM system during the proving session, it was an unadvised move to quickly implement the new system. In a systems development life-cycle all members of a squad set abouting a undertaking must be actively involved, the undertaking director should understand his/her function and every activity must be planned and monitored. In sanolabor ‘s instance the undertaking squad left all the work from the analysis to the execution phase to the package seller. No enterprise was taken until jobs started to happen in the latter phases of the development life-cycle and as a consequence it ended up being dearly-won for the company in footings of resources and clip.

Harmonizing to package execution methods ( Anon. , 2001, pg41 ) one should thoroughly measure to find where rapid execution is appropriate for your organisation, this rating was non done decently even though the implementing undertaking of the new CRM system into the company was successful. Below is a elaborate history of the challenges and the result that lead to a successful CRM execution. These experiences were both shared by the undertaking squad and the package seller.

In order to successfully implement a system in a real-work environment one must understand the concern needs every bit good as user demands of that company and good preparation guidelines must besides be followed, sanolabor ‘s CRM undertaking lacked these properties and as a consequence the company faced a batch of jobs in the execution stage. After choosing a seller the undertaking squad decided to utilize the vanilla execution to deploy the system, hence a batch of loops to the parametric quantities were done in conformity to the users ‘ demands, the result was that the undertaking director did non see the concluding version of the system ( Franka & A ; Armand, 2007 ) . The first jobs began to demo up in the preparation stage ; the users were unhappy because of the manner the Sessionss were carried out. ( Sanolabor, 2006e cited in Franka & A ; Armand, 2007 ) gives an history of the issues that were faced during preparation:

1. The user demands were inadequately fulfilled i.e. non all the maps performed as the user expected.
2. The employees had a negative attitude towards the CRM because they feared that the work burden would increase and the company ‘s organisational construction would alter, therefore their motive was low.
3. The undertaking squad had grown to 42 people by this clip which made it excessively big for proper preparation to take topographic point.
4. A suited preparation environment was non carefully chosen. It was done with sanolabor ‘s old computing machines which were really slow and lacked the capacity to back up the package.
5. Due to the big figure of users that were supposed to be trained and the handiness of clip, the Sessionss were excessively short and did n’t supply sufficient information of the systems functionality.
6. The user manuals were besides unequal because they did non reflect the proper guidelines of how to utilize the CRM.
7. The preparation was conducted unprofessionally.

Because the above result had to be rectified, the undertaking squad took charge of the undertaking and started by make up one’s minding to carry through the user demands foremost, one time this was complete they moved to prove it and it was done to a satisfactory degree. The following measure after successfully finishing the first two activities was developing. These Sessionss took topographic point two months subsequently after the initial attempted and in order to obtain successful consequences a different attack was taken. The undertaking director take to ( Franka & A ; Armand, 2007 ) :

1. Motivate the user groups by giving them confidence of better things to come, this ensured cooperation.
2. Reduce the undertaking squad significantly to 21 people: seven users per group this ensured manageableness,
3. Add the Sessionss to three hours from the old 45 proceedingss this gave the users ‘ ample clip to prove the system.
4. Improved the user manual, this lead to a better apprehension of the system.
5. Upgraded the computing machines that were at sanolabor to back up the CRM.

The consequences of the 2nd preparation were positive as it could besides be seen from the users. The following measure was to migrate the information from the bequest systems to the new CRM solution ; this was done without any jobs. After the preparation and informations migration was completed successfully, the squad was now certain that the system was ready to ‘go unrecorded ‘ . It was quickly implemented and shortly after jobs began to happen: at the operational degree Franka & A ; Armand ( 2007 ) study that ‘reclamations grounds was uncomplete, print of demands was inconsistent with demands, communicating between merchandise directors was hindered ‘ and for the analytical degree ‘reports did non present contents sing certain filters, other studies were impossible to obtain ‘ . Sanolabor besides wanted to utilize Microsoft Outlook together with the CRM solution, this prompted the seller to come up with an interface that would incorporate both. Franka & A ; Armand ( 2007, pg.205 ) writes that the:

‘Purpose was to put in the interface on all of the 60 working Stationss automatically, but it happened that the basic Microsoft system crashed down. Companies or providers proficient sup­port did non expect instability, which could ensue from such operation. It caused extra costs to the company ; purchasing new licenses and probationary support with installing of new programmes on all working Stationss ‘ .

Due to the dictates of utilizing the rapid execution method sanolabor had to alter their concern processes to suit into their new system this did non do any jobs because they were already client oriented. The execution procedure was monitored for four months where the undertaking director consistently reported errors to the provider and checked on its public presentation ( Sanolabor, 2006b cited in Franka & A ; Armand, 2007 ) .

Company decided to travel with an analytical CRM for the intent of leading, activity monitoring of employees, better inform­ing, betterment of dealingss with clients and better strate­gic determinations. It gave the replies to employees, why company decided to upgrade CRM. All this can act upon on the betterment of the general relationship with custom­ers. After going stable in March 2007 the undertaking officially closed.

Bibliography

• Sanolabor. Corporate Profile [ Online ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.sanolabor.si/eng/prispevek.asp? IDPodPodrocja=442 [ Accessed 1 March 2010 ] )
• Sanolabor. Retail. Offer [ Online ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.sanolabor.si/eng/prispevek.asp? IDPodPodrocja=445 [ Accessed 1 March 2010 ] )
• Sanolabor. Wholesale [ Online ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.sanolabor.si/eng/prispevek.asp? IDPodPodrocja=440 [ Accessed 1 March 2010 ]
• Franka Piskar & A ; Armand Faganel, 2009. A Successful CRM Implementation Project in a Service Company: Case Study. [ pdf ] Slovenia: Organizacija volume 42 Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //organizacija.fov.uni-mb.si/index.php/organizacija-en/article/viewFile/1036/864 [ Accessed 30 February 2010 ]
• Anon, 2001. Software Implementation Method. [ pdf ] Available: hypertext transfer protocol: //vig.pearsoned.co.uk/samplechapter/078972670X.pdf [ Accessed 27 February 2010 ]

Before the invention of the Internet, Music was available from many sources. Most commonly, people would venture out into their local town and buy CD’s and records from music stores such as HMV and Virgin. Sometimes they would even record a friend’s CD onto tape instead of buying it. With the advance of technology, people could even record from CD to CD. Music piracy existed before the invention of the Internet. This essay will focus on the effects the Internet has had on the Music industry

Microsoft are one of the most important companies involved in this issue because they make they make the most readily recognised software to access the Internet and to stream media. (Streaming media is when media is listened to or watched when the media is situated on the Internet and not on your computer). Due to Microsoft’s monopolisation of the software market, few other companies were significant. However, in previous years, other companies have started to greatly affect the Internet side of this story. The most well known story of a company defying Microsoft’s power is the story of Napster and Metallica.

Napster provided a free file-sharing service which let millions of users across the Internet ‘share’ their music files, which meant anyone with this program could download any music that was on another user’s computer. Metallica, a Heavy Metal band formed in 1981, are the second highest grossing Heavy Metal band after Iron Maiden. They filed a lawsuit against Napster in the US District Court, Central District of California, alleging that the company encourages piracy by enabling and allowing its users to trade copyrighted songs through its servers.

This is the main disadvantage of the Internet’s affects on the Music Industry. Bands, record companies and music shops are all suffering from this new craze to download or ‘share’ music files across the Internet. The common misconseption is that the music is on the Internet, but most people get music from Peer-to-Peer programs (P2P). This means that people can share their music with the rest of the world. Users then search for the music they want and download it. Although Napster has now been reduced to a subscription based service, the main program that is used with Internet piracy is Kazaa.

Not only can you download music using this program, but you can also download videos, pictures and software through the new Broadband services available to the public. Broadband is up to ten times faster than a normal Internet connection. As you can see from above, you can find hundreds of files to download, some with a download time of only 32 seconds for one whole song. If I can draw your attention to the magnified section of the picture, you can see there was over 3 million users sharing their files at that point in time.

This is the reality of the Internet; people download albums instead of buying them, which severely damages the music industry. However, before the invention of file sharing programs, and before Windows 98, the Music Industry was beginning to be helped by the Internet Music Companies were the first to capitalise on the new medium to advertise their company. Record companies such as EMI and Sony set up websites that advertised their corporate image and focused little on product promotion.

However, with the release of Windows 98, web pages could be viewed in a secure form, where no one else but you could view the web page. (See left) Once consumers had been convinced that their credit card numbers and their personal details could not be ‘hacked’, the Internet was revolutionised. The most famous companies to capitalise on this technology are Amazon. com and CDNow. Both offer services where the consumer buys the product from the website, and then the product is delivered to the consumers doorstep.

The choice is overwhelming, with the consumer not only having the luxury of purchasing from home, but they also have a huge choice of products which are not available at their local record store. Here is an example of a rare Judas Priest import which is difficult to find here in the U. K. However, you simply need to type in your details and depending on how you have it shipped; you can have it the next day. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage for the Music Industry. It is positive for the consumers and the artists, because their material is easy to buy.

Conversely, it is a disadvantage for music stores because people will simply stay at home and buy music. Bands have a lot to gain from the Internet. They can promote their band by making a website full of details, pictures, news and event dates, and even samples of the band’s music. This draws larger audiences for bands and they can also be ‘discovered’ by record companies who have seen their website. A further advantage is that bands can save money while controlling their CD sales.

A band can record their own music in a studio and then distribute it themselves, therefore cutting out the publishing costs. Finally, to the present day, where connection speeds to the Internet are rising, and the number of people sharing music is soaring. How will the Music Industry survive? Microsoft could hold the key. It is rumoured that the next version of Windows will only play media that has been created on your computer, stopping the file sharing craze dead in its tracks. Is it true? Only time will tell.

HTML is a technology which is used for creating web pages and linking all the pages to make a complete website. It provides facilities to embed tags to format and design text, images and other multimedia elements into a webpage. . All these combined web pages are hosted to the internet and is registered under a domain that facilitates it to have an Internet Protocol address to access it over the internet domain (W3C.org, 2007).

Internet web server functions for hosting the web pages over the internet (Hughes, 2000). It has got a detailed process in its functionality and serving requests, which is as follows:

•  It is a computer software which resides on a central place for providing its services.
• The web pages written in HTML are stored into the web server. The web pages take into account the entire composition of the services website.
• Once the request is made from an internet browser for a particular web page, the request is interpreted and translated.
• The requested is served and the web page is displayed on the client’s browser window.
• The web pages can be either static or dynamic in nature.

Microsoft FrontPage is application software which is used to construct websites (HTML pages) and allows using several facilities for adding dynamic content over the internet (FrontPage2002.com, 2007). It possesses the following features:

• The primary feature is the drag and drop facility of the page elements that are to be presented in the html page.
• FrontPage offers rich set of powerful features that are required to build a website.
• It offers facility to copy files and create hyperlinks with ease.
•  Offers an advanced set of toolbars which can be exploited to its fullest extent for creating the website
• Helps in creating pop-ups quite easily.
• It allows database creations and associated links
• It works for positioning text in cells and 3D lighting techniques
• Creates automatic cascading style sheets and quite easy for making amendments
• Possess the ability to create inline frames for embedding more than one web pages
• It comprises handwriting recognition to enter text into pages
• Creates photo gallery linking the images and putting into the website
• The Microsoft Script editor enhances the use of information in forms and provides client and server side scripting facilities
• One is given the facility to create online surveys and gather support and results for users

FrontPage offers specific facilities to edit and store web pages on a web server. The components which are used are as follows:

It possesses a publishing dialogue to store and edit web pages over the internet. It also facilitates using single page publishing to add content in web pages. The publishing activities can be tracked into a log file classifying it into confirmations and warnings. The enhanced publishing feature to drag and drop files is quite rich as it can be edited, dragged, dropped and deleted from and to any location (FrontPage2002.com, 2007).

The server editions make sure that a page can be published and managed by using a web server and create reports and filter them according to choice.

The above facilities make sure that FrontPage is used effectively in publishing content over the internet and provides efficient mechanism to edit and delete content.

“The US complaint has been filed by a Tangent, a small Burlingame, California-based hardware vendor that says it is a Microsoft certified partner, but has still been “caused significant harm” by “Microsoft’s exclusionary and restrictive practices”[1]

The Northern California Company Tangent, who is also a Microsoft Certified Partner, has claimed that Microsoft has caused them “significant harm” through “exclusionary and restrictive” practices.[2]

In its complaint, Tangent describes patterns of anticompetitive practices by Microsoft.   The activities listed by Tangent incorporate the procedure of no-option bundling of Outlook (electronic mail software) with Office (a suite of word processing, financial, media and various business software) and Active Directory (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol which provide central authentication and authorization services for Windows based computers) with Windows Server (host integration).

The forced process under the bundling system also includes the Windows Media Player (a software application player and library for digital media) and Windows Media Server (advanced live video and audio streaming functionality) along with the desktop personal computer and the server operating system, e.g. XP, Vista, etc.

Tangent attorneys’ stated in the law suit, “Microsoft’s exclusionary and restrictive practices…have caused significant harm to (Tangent) by increasing, maintaining or stabilizing the price it paid for Microsoft’s operating system software above competitive levels,” [3]

In a filing with the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Tangent’s resident territory and the right of the plaintiff to file locally, is in the clear supportive position to show cause of how Microsoft has historically continued to engage in anticompetitive conduct and practices. Thereby causing irreparable financial and market damages by directly manipulating by different means in a number of forms the price Tangent has paid for Microsoft’s operating system software.  Clearly upon comparison and review the prices are openly above competitive degrees.

Tangent has been able to list in the detail the historical relation of the personal computer and the Microsoft factor.  They contend that
Microsoft, in the letter of the law as well as the spirit, has still failed to operate within number of instruction guidelines and continues to violate Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C., §2.

Tangent has taken on the interesting position of requesting a jury to hear the case instead of a judge.  Clearly, the intent is to appeal to peers or citizens who will hear testimony as to the unfair practices of Microsoft.  There is the grave risk on the part of the Tangent argument that the issues are very complicated and so technically that only engineers or legally trained experts can decided on the case.  It can be equally promised that Microsoft lawyers will attempt to convolute the issue to a level of complicate techno speak in order to confuse the jury and possible deadlock or mistrial.  Either way, the path for appeal is being paved.

Without the normal constraint of frank competition in the marketplace and also because of “exclusionary practices” invoked by Microsoft as a standard practice, Microsoft has been able to perform in a way that the increases the “playing field” edge in its favor. Additionally, this method employed by Microsoft works to preserve or artificially maintain prices at anti-competitive conditions that cause harm to vendors and business partners. [4]

In essence, Tangent has charged that Microsoft has artificially inflated prices for the cost of the operating system software for certified partners who have no other choice in the matter thus injuring Tangent.

One of the strongest positions taken by Tangent against Microsoft is that the Microsoft server OS (operation system) includes specific, unique, undocumented programs and screens (interfaces) accessed and employed by its servers to communicate seamlessly and tacitly with one another.  Primarily, the use of several servers (server farm) is within a multiple network server community.

“Tangent alleged further that Microsoft entered into restrictive agreements with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and system builders, limiting or eliminating their ability to feature non-Microsoft products.” [5]

Cleary, the most important aspect of the Tangents argument, which in this case can be asserted by any plaintiff, is for Microsoft to cease marketing products under the guise that the uniformity of it’s software is standardize and practical.  This is not the case nor has it been in quite a while.  The position by Microsoft does not give rise to a supportive community of certified partners.  Candidly, it causes a minor panic.

Microsoft’s secretive and clandestine modus operand lends it self to a sense of obvious guilt.  The resistance to the release of the source code for any of it’s of its operating systems underlies its non-competitive practices.

Demonstrating no lack of indignation, Microsoft has chosen not to respond to any comments on this complaint or that fact any other.  Their practice has been to only to acknowledge that the case is being reviewed.

Tangent is based in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Burlingame and builds custom configured-to-order desktops, notebooks, thin clients and servers primarily for educational institutions, government agencies, business markets and proprietary enterprises.  The company is using the Microsoft Operating Systems.

[1]  -Microsoft faces fresh US and EU antitrust complaints 23rd February 2006

[2] http://wowtechminute.com/93/antitrust-lawsuit-antithesis/ Antitrust Lawsuit Antithesis Posted by Brent Norris Technology News March 2006

[3] http://news.com.com/Computer+maker+files+antitrust+suit+against+Microsoft/2100-1014_3-6041788.html By Ina Fried Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: February 21, 2006,

[4] http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=29797 Off at a tangent By INQUIRER staff: Monday 20 February 2006, 10:10

[5] http://www.channelinsider.com/article/Tangent+Suit+Claims+Microsoft+Soaked+Partners/171923_1.aspx  Tangent Suit Claims Microsoft Soaked Partners DATE: 21-FEB-2006 By John Hazard