Embrace, extend and extinguish

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish",[1] also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate",[2] is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found[3] that was used internally by Microsoft[4] to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors.

Origin

The strategy and phrase "embrace and extend" were first described outside Microsoft in a 1996 New York Times article titled "Tomorrow, the World Wide Web! Microsoft, the PC King, Wants to Reign Over the Internet",[5] in which writer John Markoff said, "Rather than merely embrace and extend the Internet, the company's critics now fear, Microsoft intends to engulf it." The phrase "embrace and extend" also appears in a facetious motivational song by Microsoft employee Dean Ballard,[6] and in an interview of Steve Ballmer by the New York Times.[7]

The variation, "embrace, extend and extinguish", was first introduced in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust trial when a vice president of Intel, Steven McGeady, testified[8] that Microsoft vice president Paul Maritz used the phrase in a 1995 meeting with Intel to describe Microsoft's strategy toward Netscape, Java, and the Internet.[9][10]

Strategy

The strategy's three phases are:[11]

  1. Embrace: Development of software substantially compatible with a competing product, or implementing a public standard.
  2. Extend: Addition and promotion of features not supported by the competing product or part of the standard, creating interoperability problems for customers who try to use the 'simple' standard.
  3. Extinguish: When extensions become a de facto standard because of their dominant market share, they marginalize competitors that do not or cannot support the new extensions.

Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it believes customers want.[12]

Examples

Variant

An older variant of the phrase is "embrace, extend then innovate" in J Allard's 1994 memo "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet"[29] to Paul Maritz and other executives at Microsoft. The memo starts with a background on the Internet in general, and then proposes a strategy on how to turn Windows into the next "killer app" for the Internet:

In order to build the necessary respect and win the mindshare of the Internet community, I recommend a recipe not unlike the one we've used with our TCP/IP efforts: embrace, extend, then innovate. Phase 1 (Embrace): all participants need to establish a solid understanding of the infostructure and the communitydetermine the needs and the trends of the user base. Only then can we effectively enable Microsoft system products to be great Internet systems. Phase 2 (Extend): establish relationships with the appropriate organizations and corporations with goals similar to ours. Offer well-integrated tools and services compatible with established and popular standards that have been developed in the Internet community. Phase 3 (Innovate): move into a leadership role with new Internet standards as appropriate, enable standard off-the-shelf titles with Internet awareness. Change the rules: Windows become the next-generation Internet tool of the future.

Companies other than Microsoft

During the browser wars, other companies besides Microsoft introduced proprietary, non-standards-compliant extensions. For example, in 1995, Netscape implemented the "font" tag, among other HTML extensions, without seeking review from a standards body. With the rise of Internet Explorer, the two companies became locked in a dead heat to out-implement each other with non-standards-compliant features. In 2004, to prevent a repeat of the "browser wars", and the resulting morass of conflicting standards, Apple Inc. (maker of Safari), Mozilla Foundation (maker of Firefox), Google Inc. (maker of Google Chrome) and Opera Software (maker of the Opera browser) formed the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) to create open standards to complement those of the World Wide Web Consortium.[30] Microsoft originally refused to join, citing the group's lack of a patent policy as the reason.[31] However, Microsoft Corporation is currently listed as a member.[32]

See also

Footnotes and references

  1. "Deadly embrace". The Economist. 2000-03-30. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
  2. "Microsoft limits XML in Office 2003". Archived from the original on September 22, 2005. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
  3. "US Department of Justice Proposed Findings of FactRevised" (PDF). Usdoj.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  4. "US Department of Justice Proposed Findings of Fact". Usdoj.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  5. John Markoff (July 16, 1996). "Tomorrow, the World Wide Web! Microsoft, the PC King, Wants to Reign Over the Internet". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  6. Rebello, Kathy (1996-07-15). "Inside Microsoft (Part 1)". Business Week. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
  7. Steve Lohr, "Preaching from the Ballmer Pulpit". New York Times, Sunday, January 28, 2007. pp. 3-1, 3-8, 3-9.
  8. "Steven McGeady court testimony". Cyber.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2006-03-31. (DOC format)
  9. "United States v. Microsoft: Trial Summaries (page 2)". Cyber.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
  10. "IN MICROSOFT WE TRUST". Archived from the original on April 19, 2005. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
  11. "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (IT Vendor Strategies)". Hr.com. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  12. "U.S. v. Microsoft: We're Defending Our Right to Innovate". Openacademy.mindef.gov.sg. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  13. "files antitrust complaint with the EU". Opera. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  14. "Plaintiff's Exhibit : 2991 : Comes v Microsoft" (PDF). Antitrust.slated.org. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  15. Matt Richtel (1998-10-22). "Memos Released in Sun-Microsoft Suit". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-22. The court documents state that in April 1997, Ben Slivka, the Microsoft manager responsible for executing the Java strategy, sent an E-mail to Microsoft's chairman, William H. Gates, noting "When I met with you last, you had a lot of pretty pointed questions about Java, so I want to make sure I understand your issues and concerns." Mr. Slivka goes on to ask if Mr. Gates's concerns included "How do we wrest control of Java away from Sun?" and "How we turn Java into just the latest, best way to write Windows applications?
  16. 1 2 "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  17. "Sun, Microsoft settle Java suit". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2001-01-23.
  18. "Microsoft's lawsuit payouts amount to around $9 billion". Theinquirer.net. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  19. "Microsoft and Sun Microsystems Enter Broad Cooperation Agreement; Settle Outstanding Litigation". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  20. "Microsoft's Kerberos shuck and jive". Networkworld.com. 2000-05-11. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  21. "Microsoft Asks Slashdot To Remove Readers' Posts". Features.slashdot.org. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  22. "Microsoft Open Specification Promise". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
  23. Jim Hu (2001-06-07). "Microsoft messaging tactics recall browser wars". CNet News.com.
  24. "Adobe Speaks Out on Microsoft PDF Battle". CIO. 2006-06-14. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  25. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 17, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 1, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  27. "Office 2007 SP2 and PDF version support – @Pot&Kettle | Gray Matter". Blogs.technet.com. 2009-05-04. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  28. Expert Testimony of Ronald Alepin in Comes v. MicrosoftEmbrace, Extend, Extinguish, Groklaw, January 8, 2007.
  29. "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet" (RTF). Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  30. "What is the WHATWG and why did it form?". Blog.whatwg.org. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  31. "MSConversations". Archived from the original on 2008-02-16. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  32. "Current Members - W3C". W3.org. 1995-12-05. Retrieved 2016-04-28.

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