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Will Microsoft Control the Anti-Spyware Market?

Posted by Cliff on from the profiting-from-their-own-flaws dept.

jasondubya asks: "With all the recent publicity of Microsoft's new Anti-Spyware product, I wonder if there will be any room in the market for other companies? After recent comparisons between with current market leaders showed large failings in their products, do they stand a chance against the behemoth that is Microsoft?"

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. BRILLIANT! by riffzifnab · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Have people beta test commercial software for free... BRILLIANT!!!!!
    Distribute said beta anti-spyware software with windows updates.... BRILLIANT!!!!!
    Hook clueless users on our anti-spyware software... BRILLIANT!!!!
    Sell the software as a subscription.... BRILLIANT!!!!!
    Sell advertising company's the ability to have us take their software out of our spyware definitions.... BRILLIANT!!!!

    with apologies to Guinness

  2. In this case... by avalys · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Obviously, if Microsoft's software is better than the competition's, they will dominate the market. Microsoft usually gets along fine without selling software that actually works, so with that in their favor for once they should do even better.

    The real debate is whether Microsoft will still dominate the market if a competitor gets its act together and produces a product that works better than Microsoft AntiSpyware.

    I think the answer is yes - look at the success of Firefox. Even mainsteam users are slowly learning that there are superior alternatives to Microsoft products. I don't think any new Microsoft product that's worse than the competition will be able to survive long.

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  3. They already have near total control. by ssclift · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Microsoft provides the avenues through which most spyware operates. By definition, therefore, they have total control over most of the anti-spyware (and spyware) market. Were they to remove the vulnerabilities in their software that allow spyware to be installed (unbeknownst to the computer's owner) they would eliminate the market for anti-spyware. If a user knowingly permits spyware on their machine it should, on a well-constructed system, be simple to monitor and remove.

    Buying risk-control software from the company who has, for the most part, generated the risk in the first place seems to be a silly thing to do. Microsoft suffers here from a severe moral hazard: you are rewarding them for bad behaviour when you buy their anti-spyware system. Also, what guarantees that their anti-spyware system is of superior quality to their operating system software, and does not open new avenues for attack (cf. their WMV DRM offerings)?

    I think third-party vendors of spyware should make this a selling point of their software.

  4. I wondered how long it would take. by Smilin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How much time does it take between:

    Microsoft taking a stand on spyware because everyone griped about it.

    -and-

    Someone griping about it because they are abusing their monopoly by taking a stand on spyware.

    ??

    Wouldn't it be nice if your grandma's computer had a firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware when she took it out of the box? It might give the back of my firewall a break. It probably won't happen though. People will get sue happy as usual with MS. I'm surprised ZoneAlarm and Blackice and those guys haven't sued about the XP firewall yet (even though it's trivial). The lawyers at McAfee and Symantec already have their game plan ready if MS bundles an anti-virus. Heck if the EU lawyers had their way in America my 2005 PC wouldn't even be able to play music when I took it out of the box!

    As usual MS entered a new market swinging and everyone is crying foul when it looks like they have a hit.