“Microsoft has turned up the heat significantly in its fight for
Internet dominance, disclosing… that it may offer low- or no-cost
Internet access…”
” ‘We are aggressively thinking about how to get people to use
our products and services and offering a low-cost or no-cost
service is an option,’ said Deanne Sanford, lead product manager at
Microsoft Network. MSN is the No. 2 Internet access provider with
about 1.8 million subscribers…”
“Microsoft has long dominated that [web] interface because of
the prominence of its Windows operating system. But Windows and
other systems are increasingly being marginalized as the browser
and other Internet technologies gain importance. Even applications
that traditionally ran on the operating system are moving onto the
Web.
‘Microsoft is motivated by reasons other than world
domination–namely, a major threat to its core operating system
franchise,’ Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget wrote in a
letter to clients today. ‘Microsoft has hinted at a willingness to
lose money on the access business in order to gain market share,
and more importantly, sell operating systems.’ “