When Old Zhang was angry, Feng Yu was on the phone with Wilson, asking him when the lawsuit against Microsoft will be settled.
This time, Microsoft will give Lenovo Kingsoft less trouble.
Some time ago, Microsoft had lowered the price of XP and thought it will affect the sales of XOS. But Lenovo Kingsoft's announcement ruined Microsoft's plan.
Lenovo Kingsoft announced that XOS will be maintained for at least 5 years.
As for what this meant and who it was aimed at, everyone could tell at a glance.
Microsoft had a new generation of operating system every 2 to 3 years. When OS 2000 was introduced, 95 had stopped its maintenance. When XP was introduced, 2000 had stopped its maintenance.
Didn't Microsoft announce that they will be introducing VISTA soon? Does that mean XP will stop its maintenance soon?
That means even though they had spent a small amount to buy the original XP, no one will fix the bugs within a year. How are they going to secure the system? How are they going to solve all sorts of problems?
In the end, even though Microsoft had lowered the price of XP, not many people were willing to buy it. This was because Microsoft officials did not announce how long XP will be maintained. This seems to be a tacit agreement that XP will stop updating after VISTA.
Who will buy a system that can only be used for a few months? Didn't Vista say that it was very different from XP? That's why XP's sales did not increase after lowering the price.
Also, Lenovo Group will no longer install Microsoft's operating system, and many manufacturers had signed agreements with Lenovo Kingsoft. A cheaper operating system will lower their product's retail prices and increase their competitiveness.
Furthermore, Lenovo Kingsoft had paid a price for this. For example, they had given up part of the operating system's retail prices to these PC manufacturers. Now, many manufacturers had installed XOS in their PCs.
Bill Gates was furious at the board of directors. He scolded all the people in charge of product development and sales. He ordered them to speed up the development of the new product and enter the market as soon as possible. At the same time, he asked those PC manufacturers to restrict the sales of their PCs with XOS. Microsoft's VISTA will surely surprise them.
Actually, those PC manufacturers were fed up with Microsoft's overbearing ways. They can't wait for an operating system to step out and challenge Microsoft. How much can they earn from selling a PC? Microsoft's operating system is much more than theirs.
Based on the profit margin, Microsoft will make the most out of every PC sold. How can the PC manufacturers feel this way?
Furthermore, Lenovo Kingsoft's offer will increase their profits. How can they not support it? In the business world, there are no eternal friends. There are only eternal profits. Furthermore, Microsoft and Microsoft are never friends!
Especially after everyone knew that the XP system would soon stop updating and maintenance, the sales of PCs that were pre-installed with the XP system had plummeted. Those PC manufacturers were also quite dissatisfied with this.
Now, they want Microsoft to announce that they will maintain XP for at least three more years. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not agree.
But compared to the poor system sales, Microsoft is more concerned about being sued for monopolizing the market. They didn't want to lose the power of this bundled sales model, which would make their software lose its biggest competitive advantage.
Of course, it would be better if he didn't have to pay a fine. Nowadays, many countries don't think that there's anything wrong with this kind of binding, right? Most of their bundles were free software.
Especially after Lenovo Kingsoft's office software was launched globally, Lenovo cannot afford to lose this advantage. If not, their selling prices will be lowered, and their profits will be affected.
They had never expected Hua Xia to sue Microsoft for monopolizing the market. They also found out that after Hua Xia's anti-monopoly law was passed, Microsoft was the first to be sued. This was purposely targeting them!
In the first two hearings, although their lawyers tried their best to argue, the effect was minimal.
Hua Xia's legal system was fundamentally different from the Anglo-American legal system. In Hua Xia's legal system, if there was a law, then the judgment would be made according to the law. The various clauses were very detailed, and the presiding judge's ruling was the main one.
On the other hand, in Europe and the United States, it was more rough. The verdict was based on the usual practice, and the jury's vote was the main factor. Furthermore, their media and public could influence the verdict.
In Hua Xia's legal system, although the media and the public had an influence, it would at most affect the severity of the sentence, not whether a person was guilty or not.
That's why it was certain that Microsoft would be found guilty of violating the law and will be punished. As for the amount of the fine, because the amount was too high, Hua Xia's anti-monopoly law only stipulated a penalty of 5 million RMB.
Now, they were fighting over the amount of the fine. From the current situation, Microsoft was in a disadvantageous position.
Hua Xia's lawyer was Wilson, who had been working for Feng Yu. He had made use of the loophole in the law and requested for the verdict to be based on the Anglo-American legal system.
What made Microsoft furious was Hua Xia's side was siding with Feng Yu. Most of the people felt the fine was reasonable. Also, Wilson was saying that Microsoft was treating the market differently, and this made Bill Gates want to curse out loud!
We are treating the market differently? In the past, Hua Xia's products were sold at the lowest price in the world! Why didn't you all complain about this? Now, our selling prices had increased. Shouldn't this be happening? Hua Xia's GDP is already the highest in the world.
We are not treating the market differently, and that's why we ended up in this situation!
Today was the third court session, and both parties were arguing over the amount of the fine.
Wilson kept setting traps with his words, and Microsoft's lawyer was having a hard time dealing with him.
Microsoft's representative's face changed. They realized the situation had developed to the worst. The Chinese Government had used them as a warning to the rest. Microsoft was the "chicken" that was used to warn the rest!
Although Microsoft's lawyer tried to defend himself, it was to no avail. The court ruled that Microsoft was guilty of monopolizing the market and was fined more than 1.836 billion RMB. They must also release some of their products' source codes. This amount set a new record for Hua Xia's government, and it will not be broken for years to come!
When Microsoft and Microsoft walked out of the court, a group of Chinese and foreign reporters surrounded them. Hua Xia's strong performance had surprised many people. Microsoft refused to settle out of court, and the final verdict was issued after three court sessions. The court ordered Microsoft to pay the fine within a limited time. If not, Microsoft's accounts in Hua Xia's company will be sealed!
Microsoft lost the lawsuit for monopolizing the market again!
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