From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Microsoft admits to misleading IE claims (Reuters)
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:58:13 -0600
Microsoft admits to misleading IE claims
By Martin Wolk, March 25, 1999
<--When Microsoft claimed a new record for IE 5.0 downloads, it admitted
stretching the truth about IE 4.0-->
SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday its new Web browsing software
had been downloaded by more than 1 million people in record time,
forcing executives to admit the software giant exaggerated public
response to the previous version released in 1997.
In a news release, Microsoft declared that customer downloads of IE5,
which was released Thursday for free distribution over the Internet,
"more than tripled those of the previous record-setting Internet
Explorer 4.0."
But oddly, a Microsoft executive said IE5 did not pass the 1 million
mark until the fifth day after the product launch. Back in October 1997
Microsoft trumpeted the fact that IE4 exceeded 1 million downloads in
just two days, marking a new record.
The figures should have been comparable because in both cases they
represented only customers who downloaded the software through
Microsoft's own Web site, excluding the many partner sites where the
product can be found.
In an interview, Microsoft product manager Mike Nichols explained that
the 1 million figure announced in 1997 had been achieved by counting
anyone who downloaded a tiny piece of code for the browser called the
"Active Setup executable."
Only a small percentage of those people actually had completed the
process of downloading the massive Web browser itself at the time of the
announcement, he said -- a fact never previously disclosed.
"With IE5 we made the choice to be more rigorous and count only complete
downloads," he said. "Either way you measure it, IE5 is more than triple
the downloads" of the previous version.
The disclosure of the misleading news release provides a glimpse into
how Microsoft used its marketing machine to buttress efforts to increase
its share of the Internet browser market, which in October 1997 still
was dominated by archrival Netscape Communications Corp.
Executives of both companies say the browser market now is split about
evenly between the two companies, although Netscape, now a unit of
Internet giant America Online Inc., contends its browser still holds a
substantial lead in the business market.
The 1997 release of IE4 also came as the Justice Department was
intensifying its investigation of Microsoft's business practice but
before it accused the software giant of improperly forcing computer
makers to install the browser along with the company's market-dominating
Windows operating system.
The government lost that case but then filed a much broader antitrust
action against Microsoft that is the subject of a landmark trial,
currently in recess.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday the company is in ongoing
talks to settle the litigation. Microsoft's image has taken a beating at
the trial, where government lawyers have scored courtroom points by
challenging the credibility of the company's executives on the witness
stand.
Microsoft has defended its actions in part by saying it has integrated
the Web browser ever more tightly with Windows to satisfy customer
demand.