地位，利用WINDOWS XP作業系統軟體(以下簡稱為XP)之高市
佔率，搭載Media Player應用程式，排除市場相關產品之競(註
一)，並要求微軟剔除該相關應用程式。後來微軟接受和解，且生
產新版本的XP，將其稱之為XP N，但歐洲市場對於該產品反應
卻是相當冷淡，使得微軟高呼『歐盟執委會強迫微軟生產一個沒
人要的產品(Commission forced us to make a product no-one wants)。
以下外電報導全文，轉引自EURACTIV 網站之專文：
Microsoft: Commission forced us to make a product no-one wants
In Short:
Microsoft lawyers have argued, on the first day of a one-week hearing with the European Court of First Instance, that the Commission's 2004 antitrust decision was fundamentally flawed.
Background:
The Luxembourg Court will have to rule on the software company's appeal against the Commission's ruling that, by bundling its Media Player software with the Windows operating system, Microsoft had abused its dominant position on the market for operating systems to dominate also other segments of the software market. Microsoft was ordered to pay a 497 million euro fine and to ship a version of Windows without the pre-installed media player.
Positions：
This version - called Windows XP N - has been a complete market failure, argued Microsoft lawyer Jean-Francois Bellis on 24 April 2006. Only one out of 20,000 copies of Windows XP sold in Europe since the transposition of the Commission's ruling was the version without Media Player, and computer makers have not shipped a single computer without the software pre-installed. Consequently, Bellis said, Microsoft should not have been disallowed to ship XP bundled with Media Player only in the first place. "The failure to offer a product that nobody wants cannot be an abuse," Bellis said, adding that the success of other media software such as Apples' iTunes and Macromedia's Flash Player was a proof that Media Player was not distorting the market.Microsoft's rivals have grouped up in the 'European Committee for Interoperable Systems' (ECIS). They argue that the products named by Bellis do not serve the same market segment as Windows Media Player. Microsoft, they say, did indeed achieve a quasi-monopolistic position in the market for streaming video players by leveraging its position on the market for operating systems. "By imposing its player and its format as the standard, Microsoft can become the gatekeeper, which would allow to dictate how and at what price digital media is created, delivered and played," argued ECIS chairman Simon Awde.
Latest & next steps
Observers say the Court's ruling, which is not to be expected before the second half of 2007, will have general consequences on how the Commission will be able to deal with software bundling issues in the future. If the ruling is favourable to the Commission, this will mean that dominant market players have to be much more prudent in the future. For Microsoft, this will be of major importance with respect to the upcoming 'Vista' version of the Windows operating system. If Microsoft wins, the Commission will be much weaker in future cases. 看完之後，小弟的感想是不管怎樣做都不對，哈哈。要是搭載
Media Player影音軟體，怕會被歐盟執委會以違反歐盟競爭法第82
條之由起訴，從此公司將進入漫長官司訴訟階段，將影響後續公
司於歐洲市場的收益，但若和歐盟執委會和解之後，所生產的新
產品，卻遭受市場冷淡反應，此時股東們又會整個LP充滿著熊熊
的火燄，吃力不討好。不曉得比爾此刻內心會不會有這個想法，
歐洲人真是TMD(註二)龜毛，呵呵~~~~
註一：在美國，微軟被美國反托斯機關起訴的理由是因為IE應用程式排除相關市場的競爭；而在台灣，微軟遭受到公平會調查的原因是文書應用軟體之優勢地位排除相關市場競爭且有壟斷之虞，真是欲加之罪，玲瑯滿目阿，呵呵~~~~
註二：此為音譯，原文為「他媽的」。
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