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Antitrust-A-Go-Go (5/28/98)
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Those wacky feds are at it again! This time they're going after the other half of the "Wintel" hegemony, as the Federal Trade Commission prepares to launch an antitrust lawsuit against Intel for allegedly using their 85% share of the personal computer processor market to squelch competition in the chipmaking field. The recommendation for the suit could come as early as tomorrow. A Bloomberg News article has the gory details.
If this Intel suit comes to pass, expect its structure to echo that of the current conflict between the Department of Justice and Microsoft; first, they'll probably file a small suit focused on a specific instance of anticompetitive behavior, and they'll extend that case outward into a broader antitrust case over time. The FTC case against Intel will most likely be springboarded off of the current private suit by Intergraph, who sued Intel for witholding technical information to prevent Intergraph from competing successfully in the graphics chip market. In addition, the FTC suit will probably address the way in which Intel has been changing the motherboard interface for its chips (the Pentium II apparently uses a proprietary connector) in what seems to be an attempt to force other chipmakers out of the running.
While we at AtAT are always happy to bring another lawsuit on board, we've gotta say, this one looks to be kind of dull, despite its potential far-reaching consequences. After all, when you've got Microsoft up there in court claiming flat-out that they don't know how to uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 95, that's real entertainment value. Somehow we just doubt that we're going to see anything that interesting come up in this possible Intel case. C'mon, guys-- surprise us!
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/28/98 episode: May 28, 1998: An old cast member resurfaces to hiss and scratch about Apple. Meanwhile, Byte magazine goes bye-bye, and the FTC suits up to put the Bunnymen on trial for not playing fair...
Other scenes from that episode: 744: Exponential Bitterness (5/28/98) Bitter much? That's the question to ask the guys from Exponential Technology, Inc., whom you may remember as the company who was going to push the PowerPC into the stratosphere with its 533 MHz x704 processor... 745: Print Is Dead (5/28/98) If you thought MacUser getting absorbed by MacWorld was an indication of the Mac's further decline into obscurity, well, to a certain degree, you're absolutely right. And if you saw the recent announcement that MacWEEK's print edition will be changing its name to eMedia Weekly to reflect its coverage of Windows as well as the Mac, you probably thought that was another sign of flagging Mac market share-- and again, you'd be right...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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