Does Opera Have a Fighting Chance against Internet Explorer and Windows?

Last week, Opera went against Microsoft by filing an antitrust complaint with the European Union. The Norwegian company headquartered in Oslo wants the EU Antitrust Commission to force Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and to adopt "fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities". Opera will also be content if the Redmond company would integrate third-party browsing solutions into its Windows client, a move quite far-fetched for Microsoft, even by a stretch of the imagination.

Opera is counting on a similar decision issued by the EU antitrust regulators back in 2004 for Microsoft, one that forced the stripping down of Windows Media Player from the Windows operating system. The measure was reinforced by the Luxembourg Court of First Instance in 2007, with a decision that supported almost entirely the conclusion of the EU Antitrust Commission. Opera is looking to do the same, but this time with Internet Explorer.

The Oslo-based browser developer accused Microsoft of monopolist practices that reduce end user options by tying IE with Windows. The Redmond company rebuffed claims that it was not delivering consumers with a genuine and valid choice of Web browsers, and that it wasn't abusing in any way its dominant position of the Windows operating system. In response to Opera, Microsoft stated that it would not unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows, unless forced by the antitrust regulators in Europe, and that both end users and original equipment manufacturers had a wide range of options available when it came to selecting their default browser.

In the end however, the precedent set by the 2004 antitrust decision managed only superficially to affect Microsoft, despite a healthy financial penalty of half a billion euros. Microsoft was indeed ordered to sell Windows copies stripped of Windows Media Player, but it can do so alongside fully featured versions of its operating system. Statistics indicate that consumers have chosen to buy the complete Windows variant over the Windows N editions. In this context, the same could be valid for Opera's antitrust complaint, if it ever reaches the level where Microsoft has to offer Windows without Internet Explorer. Not a bright future to look ahead to, for a company that is reported to have less than 1% of the browser market.