Palm complains that Microsoft can block out its handhelds

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Posted 7:59AM on Thursday, March 28, 2002

WASHINGTON - An executive of handheld computer maker Palm says Microsoft has attempted to block Palm's development by holding back access to development tools and that Palm would benefit from the remedies that nine states want to impose on Microsoft for antitrust violations. Michael Mace, a Palm vice president, argues that Microsoft can frustrate Palm users by disrupting how the device communicates with desktop computers, according to court documents. Mace is a key witness in the states' efforts to show that the penalties they seek -- which include Microsoft's disclosure of technical information to software developers -- should apply to many emerging technologies rather than just the desktop operating system market. Microsoft makes a version of its Windows operating system for competing handheld devices, and the states plan to say that Microsoft is free under a federal settlement to make Microsoft's own devices work better with Windows than those of Palm's. The nine states are asking U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to force Microsoft to create a stripped-down version of its flagship Windows software that could incorporate competitors' features. The states also want Microsoft to divulge the blueprints for its Internet Explorer browser. The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case against Microsoft last year for lesser penalties. The original judge in the case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled its competitors. An appeals court reversed the breakup order and appointed Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment. Microsoft attempted to show Wednesday that network software maker Novell's business strategy was linked to its participation in the states' efforts to punish Microsoft for antitrust violations. In one e-mail released by Microsoft lawyers, Novell chief executive Jack Messman said the company was looking for a "Trojan horse" in order to get a piece of Novell software installed on Microsoft operating systems. "We need to infiltrate the Microsoft strategy," Messman wrote in a December 2001 e-mail. "After we get in, we can then proliferate." Novell had been unsuccessful in trying to convince Microsoft to let users choose a piece of Novell software over Microsoft's. In a response to Messman, Novell Chief Technology Officer Carl Ledbetter said, "If what we're doing in the states' antitrust case creates a crack in (Microsoft's) resistance, we may have a way to renew the offer." At the time of the e-mail, Ledbetter said he was in Washington meeting with the nine state attorneys general. Microsoft lawyer Michael Lacovara, who was cross-examining Ledbetter in court Wednesday, tried to prove that the states' intended penalties against Microsoft would be a boon to Novell. The Novell executive cast doubt on Microsoft's claim that it would be impossible to release a "modular" version of Windows because of the difficulty in testing the thousands of possible combinations of its products and those of competitors. Novell's flagship NetWare product has many more interlocking modules, Ledbetter said, with over 10 quadrillion possible combinations. But Novell only tests the 300 most common combinations. Ledbetter estimated that Microsoft would only have to test "a couple hundred" possible iterations of Windows. "It's a very reasonable estimation," Ledbetter said. States that rejected the government's settlement with Microsoft and have continued to pursue the antitrust case are Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia. ------ On the Net: Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com National Association of Attorneys General: http://www.naag.org