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Duelling MIT Economists (1/12/99)
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Finally, it's Microsoft's turn to bat in the ongoing courtroom drama known to us all as "Redmond Justice." The government finished up with its twelve witnesses today when the last of them, MIT economist Franklin Fisher, testified in a closed-door session that Microsoft set Windows pricing in ways intended to crush competitors and reward computer manufacturers that agreed to help Microsoft maintain its alleged stranglehold on the market. Strangely enough, first up in Microsoft's batting order is another MIT economist, Richard Schmalensee.
Schmalensee's written testimony certainly leads off with a legal bang: according to an Interactive Week article, he claims that the government has "failed utterly" to show that Microsoft holds a monopoly. What follows is almost a point-by-point rebuttal of all of the government's claims; Schmalensee not only disagrees with the government's conclusions, but also calls into question the data used to arrive at those conclusions, such as market share numbers for the web browser market. Schmalensee's motto seems to be, "Everything you know is wrong."
Points off to Microsoft for leading off with an economist; it's not the most entertaining choice in the world, is it? (Although we have to admit, the name "Schmalensee" makes us smile. Schmalensee. Schmalensee. Say it! It's fun.) We'll reserve judgement until we get to see how Schmalensee handles himself under cross-examination, though-- he sounds like he might be a real pistol. There's potential for some heated moments, there. We're very anxious to see where the show takes us now that it's Microsoft's witnesses taking the stand.
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SceneLink (1264)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 1/12/99 episode: January 12, 1999: Drooling over Yosemite? Wait 'til you hear about Sawtooth. Meanwhile, Colin Crawford denies the claim made by Colin Crawford that Intergraph was kicked out of last week's Expo, and it's Microsoft's turn at bat in "Redmond Justice"-- leading off is MIT economist Richard Schmalensee...
Other scenes from that episode: 1262: The Next Big Thing (1/12/99) So your New Year's resolution was to stick to your budget and not to break down and spend thousands of dollars on newly-released Apple equipment that you really don't need just yet. Then the Yosemites were unveiled, pictures of the new "El Capitan" casings were widely circulated around the 'net, and you found yourself glancing with more and more distaste towards your old beige Mac... 1263: Colin "Sybil" Crawford (1/12/99) Okay, so what really happened with Windows workstation vendor Intergraph at last week's Macworld Expo? As late as this past Sunday afternoon, a Computer Reseller News article claimed that Intergraph had been expelled from the Expo for violating certain guidelines set down by the Expo gods-- namely, that Intergraph would only be allowed to show their NT servers being accessed by Mac clients...
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