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How did they force them? With a gun or something? Google will threaten to cancel your Play Services license if you ship services (that have nothing to do with

• AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  They forced them like this: If you're installing Windows on all your boxes, it costs you $X per box. If you install Windows on only some of your boxes, it costs 2X or 3X per box. Your options are to install Windows on every box, to install it on none (not really an option for big OEMs), or to be at a cost disadvantage to your competitors. In practice, it was "install Windows or lose a big chunk of your business".
  • ksk 8y ago
    That sounds like a volume discount, which is actually encouraged under most capitalist models to capture consumer surplus. Its not exactly what happened. To put it simply, Microsoft used a complicated pricing model where the OEM paid a lump-sum to Microsoft based on expected sales and Microsoft applied zero marginal pricing so every copy of windows was "free". But if they exceeded their sales they then incurred a fee for every additional unit sold. If they increased their sales, then the lump-sum would have to be renegotiated for the next contract. They wanted to tax the 'output' of the OEMs instead of just selling them at volume. It was a form of predatory pricing which got them into trouble. I don't believe competing OSes were ever a big threat to Microsoft.