By Dan Jones in Washington
In a newly released deposition Friday, Apple Computer Inc executive Avadis Tevanian charged that Microsoft Corp used anti- competitive measures to quash Apple’s QuickTime multimedia playback technology, and that Redmond threatened it would kill Apple in the media playback market. Tevanian also listed firms he alleged were pressured by Microsoft – Compaq Computer Corp, Avid Technology Inc and TrueVision Inc – to stop supporting QuickTime in favor of Microsoft multimedia proprietary technology. Tevanian, who will take the stand today (Monday), backs up previous government allegations that said Microsoft threatened to stop support for the Mac version of the Office suite if Apple did not make Internet Explorer the default Macintosh browser. In his deposition, Tevanian described how Microsoft attempted to gain domination of the multimedia player market, and in a series of meetings between April 1997 and June 1998, repeatedly pressured Apple to cede the playback market to Microsoft, leaving the Cupertino company with the less lucrative multimedia authoring tools sector. When interim CEO Steve Jobs told Microsoft in June 1998 that Apple had no interest in giving up QuickTime, Redmond took steps to sabotage the multimedia technology, Tevanian said. These included misleading error messages and technical bypasses, with Windows choosing Microsoft ActiveMovie over QuickTime. More seriously, he alleged that Microsoft used undocumented changes to the Windows registry to impair the ability of QuickTime to play various multimedia file types, and that Microsoft had manipulated the plug-in architecture of its browser – IE 4.0 – and other multimedia software in ways one would expect if those changes were driven for the purposes of market control, rather than technical requirements. He claimed that Microsoft had made those changes – such as using ActiveX APIs – because the company no longer had to compete with Netscape and wanted to deprive QuickTime of the opportunity to process all but a few of the file formats in IE 4.0. Tevanian claimed that in late 1997 Compaq dropped plans to bundle QuickTime with Windows on its computer products, because Compaq was very afraid of doing anything to upset Microsoft. Tevanian also detailed how Avid apparently dropped QuickTime because it was told that its Cinema multimedia application would not be part of a direct-to-desktop sales channel on Windows 98 as long as it supported QuickTime. In addition, according to the Tevanian deposition, back in 1997, video capture card manufacturer TrueVision was also pressured to use Microsoft multimedia products, after it chose QuickTime for both its Windows and Mac products. Tevanian claimed that the reason Microsoft was so worried about QuickTime was because of its cross-platform capability, which threatened to weaken the symbiotic relationship between the operating system and application programs that is the foundation of Microsoft’s monopoly position and that poses such a substantial barrier to competition in the operating systems market. Tevanian detailed the patent disputes and alleged threats to withdraw support for Mac Office that led to the Apple and Microsoft deal in August 1998, claiming that the pressures exerted by Microsoft compelled Apple to resolve the dispute on terms that gave significant advantages to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.