“Why didn't the government investigate Microsoft when Windows dominated the market?”

Sep 2, 2014 12:24 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is facing serious trouble in China, where the government is investigating the company for alleged anti-trust violations, and pretty much everyone in the industry is surprised at the way local authorities are handling the case.

It all started a few months ago, when Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system got banned on government computers for no apparent reason, but people close to the matter revealed that it was all due to security claims that Redmond could use the software to steal state secrets and hand them over to US intelligence agencies.

In an article posted today, Chinese website SCMP cites several local analysts saying that this investigation comes a little bit too late, especially because Microsoft is no longer dominating the local market, and other operating systems are already on the market.

"Why didn't the government investigate Microsoft when Windows dominated the market? Today, more people are moving to operating systems developed by Google and Apple," Keso Hong Bo was quoted as saying.

Of course, this statement isn’t true because Windows continues to be China’s number one operating system, even though most of the licenses are pirated and Microsoft still struggles to convince everyone to switch to genuine copies.

In the meantime, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella is said to be planning a visit to China to discuss all claims and try to find a way to resolve the company’s issues in the country.

Analysts believe that Nadella is the only one who could help address all China’s complaints and make Microsoft’s products available to the local government once again.

"He should show the company's commitment to the local market by ensuring mutually beneficial growth with local resellers, which include independent software vendors and systems integrators,” Charlie Dai, analyst at Forrester Research, explained.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is trying to convince the Chinese government that it’s not violating any competition rules, and even though Windows 8 is no longer available, Windows 7 is also there to serve as a backup.

“Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Center and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements. We have been and will continue to provide Windows 7 to government customers. At the same time we are working on the Window 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies,” the company said.

China has offered Microsoft an ultimatum of 20 days to explain why it allegedly refused to disclose all compatibility issues of Windows and Office, but the company is yet to release an official statement on this.