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Microsoft Wanted To Drop Mac Office To Hurt Apple

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the airing-the-dirty-laundry dept.

Overly Critical Guy writes to mention that more documents in the Iowa antitrust case have come out. This time, it's revealed that Microsoft considered dumping the Mac Office Suite entirely in a move to harm Apple. "The email complains at poor sales of Office, which it attributes to a lack of focus on making such sales among reps at that time. It describes dumping development of the product as: 'The strongest bargaining point we have, as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately.' The document also confirms that Microsoft at the time saw Office for the Mac as a chance to test new features in the product before they appeared in Windows, 'because it is so much less critical to our business than Windows.'"

13 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Harm Apple? by basic0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they really wanted to harm Apple and it's users, they'd port Clippy to Office:Mac and enable it by default.

    1. Re:Harm Apple? by necro81 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, they did have something similar - a little animated assistant named Max. It looked like a Macintosh Plus with Mickey Mouse feet. Instead of snide facial expressions (a la Clippy), it would be stupid expressions on the animated Mac's screen, with the disk slot for a mouth. If you didn't ask it a question for a while, it would start doing attention-getting things like transforming itself (Rubik's cube style) or rocking back and forth on its feet. The best was that when you finally told the little shit to go away, it would have a waving hand flash on its screen.

      I swear that in the animation of the waving hand Icould see it giving me the finger.

  2. Re:Nature of the beast.... by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait a damned minute. MS does NOT have a patent on illegal behavior.....

    Oh wait, you said 'patently'

    Never mind

    --
    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
  3. Dropping MS office for the Mac could.. by russ1337 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dropping MS office for the Mac could hurt MS Office for the PC long term - Why?

    Apple might consider including OpenOffice.Org then advertising it:

    Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac,
    PC: and I'm a PC
    PC: So what is that your doing
    Mac: Oh, just some office stuff, you know, spreadsheets, documents, presentations
    PC: I can do those too
    Mac: Yeah, but I don't use your monopoly expensive as shit software, I use this free one which is actually better. It doesnt try to format shit I don't want. Oh, and it's free and works on a PC too. You should try it.
    PC: Hey you're right! This OpenOffice.org is the shnizzer! All the PC users should download it from www.openoffice.org right now!

    1. Re:Dropping MS office for the Mac could.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Mac: So what is it that you're doing?
      PC: Oh, you know, playing video games.
      Mac: Obviously activity a "square" would pursue.

  4. Re:Timeline 1997 by B3ryllium · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably a whole lot of BJs.

  5. Re:The Headline by pla · · Score: 4, Funny

    Should Microsoft be _forced_ to sell a product that doesn't benefit them?

    Yes, damnit!

    And unless I can have Clippy offering helpful advice as I slave away at my Timex Sinclair 1000, I plan to sue Microsoft for anticompetitive behavior.

    Damn that Bill Gates and his 640KB of RAM... Just because I only have 2KB, he thinks he can just ignore 0.00026% of the home market?

  6. Re:Timeline 1997 by postmortem · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... hence the Steve Jobs middle nickname "Blow"

  7. Re:I can't imagine by drsmithy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why anyone smart enough to buy a Mac and avoid Windows would then want to buy Office, especially when they can download OpenOffice for free.

    Because then they'd have to use OpenOffice.

  8. Re:Email Communications by mgabrys_sf · · Score: 2, Funny

    re:"It's blatantly obvious to any armchair strategist."

    Wait wait wait - is THAT what Steve Balmer is calling himself these days? It now - all - makes - SENSE!

    *fling*

    Owch!

  9. Microsoft exploded a Bug-Bomb by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    they would get even more for their bribe money to whoever received it that immediately pulled the DOJ dogs off of Microsoft after they had been convicted of abusing their monopoly position.
    I imagine the proceedings went something like this:

    "Due to the severe and heinous nature of your crime, you, Microsoft of Redmond, Washington, are--"

    "Recognized for selfless love and devotion to His Shadow."

    "Of 26 Counts of Monopolistic--, -s of Monopolistic--, -s of Monopolistic--"

    "You, Microsoft of Redmond, Washington--"

    "You are hereby given an Award of Merit!"
    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  10. Re:Nature of the beast.... by eclectic4 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I hate MS, I own a MAC, I helped found a linux distribution."

    You own a Mac and still use all caps to describe it? Let me see your secret Apple Owner's card... I thought so...

    The dev costs for Office for Mac is far less when a great deal of the code already existed for the Windows version. So, your analogy fails, sorry. And remember, profitable means that it's making them money. Period. Whether it's making as much as some other part of their company is largely irrelevant.

    --

    "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
  11. Re:Nature of the beast.... by Poltras · · Score: 2, Funny

    MS does NOT have a patent on illegal behavior..... Prior art?
    --
    Of Code And Men