Right Back At Ya: EU Threatens Microsoft With Non-Compliance Fine
And speaking of the EU, they provided their own little threats this week. After trying not to chuckle as they mused over Microsoft"s latest accusations (see above), EU regulators warned the company that it had better clean up its act or it would face daily fines. "If we pursue the line we are following now, there will be fines and they won"t be small fines," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said this week. According to the EU, Microsoft could be fined upwards of $2 million a day, and those fines would be retroactive to December 2005. Of course, that kind of money is like the "take a penny" jar for Microsoft, but still, it would be interesting if it ever came to that. Certainly, Microsoft"s petulant behavior towards the EU isn"t helping.
However, it might be based on XP Embedded, not the normal version of XP Tablet PC Edition. But give Microsoft for finally creating a little hype. The "Origami" small form factor Tablet PC is the talk of cyberspace, especially after Apple threw up an air ball with its horribly unexciting product announcement on Tuesday. But really, Origami is nothing new. Think an OQO device with Tablet PC capabilities and you"re probably right on the money. Less than $1000 if they"re smart. Battery life won"t be as good as it should be, I"m told. And so on. It"s kind of unclear why this is so interesting.