Apple Exec Says Microsoft Acted to Harm Software
In the strongest allegation to yet emerge in the government’s antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., an Apple Computer Inc. executive has claimed that Microsoft altered its Windows operating system to sabotage a key Apple product.
Avadis Tevanian Jr., senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, made the claim in 46 pages of written testimony released Friday by the Justice Department. He said Microsoft changed computer code in Windows to disable a popular Apple multimedia product called “Quicktime” after unsuccessfully pressuring Apple to cede the multimedia market.
Tevanian also echoed previous allegations that Microsoft’s $150-million investment in Apple last year was made in exchange for Apple agreeing to make Microsoft’s Internet Explorer the default Web browser on Apple computers. But Tevanian also added a new claim: He said that Microsoft pressured the nation’s largest personal computer maker, Compaq Computer Corp., not to carry Quicktime, a multimedia software application that allows computer users to view short film clips. Quicktime is seen as a key Internet application because because Web content creators are increasingly looking for ways to present more compelling information and entertainment to Web users in what is now still a largely static Internet environment.
The government’s case centers on its claim that Microsoft is illegally leveraging its Windows operating system monopoly to extend its dominance to Internet and multimedia software.
“The widespread popularity and use of Quicktime pose a significant threat to Microsoft,” Tevanian testified. “. . . Microsoft has written steps into its operating system to ensure that a Quicktime file will not operate reliably in Windows.”
Tevanian also testified that “Microsoft has also caused misleading error messages to appear that trick the user into believing that Quicktime technology is part of the problem actually caused by the Windows operating system.”
Microsoft spokesmen could not be reached for comment late Friday. But the company’s chief trial lawyer, John Warden, is likely to attack Tevanian’s claims on technical grounds when he takes the stand on Monday. The company has previously challenged similar allegations of sabotage, saying rival software developers simply didn’t program their software correctly for Windows.
Tevanian’s allegations of anti-competitive behavior are stronger than the government’s two previous witnesses in a number of respects, however.
First, Microsoft actually reached an agreement with Apple to promote Microsoft’s browser at the expense of Netscape Communications Corp.; previous testimony dealt with allegedly anticompetitive proposals by Microsoft that did not come to pass. And Microsoft’s efforts to pressure Apple to give up Quicktime are alleged to be far more extensive than similar claims by Netscape that it was pressured by Microsoft to give up development of its Web browser for the Windows 95 operating system.
Tevanian claims Microsoft’s campaign to kill off Quicktime, which was released for the Windows operating system in 1992, began about two years ago. In a key April 1997, meeting between Microsoft and Apple executives, Tevanian testified that Eric Engstrom, Microsoft’s manager for multimedia technology, told Apple officials at the meeting that Microsoft wanted to take over the Internet multimedia software market.
