Slack is dredging up Microsoft’s monopolistic past.
“Unfortunately, Microsoft has never seen it that way.” Salesforce’s Slack was indignant the chat app-maker turned Nadella’s own words against him: “Our reaction is simple: choice is better than lock-in, open is better than closed, and fair competition is best of all,” Slack said in a statement. As part of the features announced at Thursday’s event, Microsoft said it would bundle Teams, its chat software, into Windows 11. While Microsoft declares itself beneficent, competitors detect only hypocrisy. As The Verge’s Dieter Bohn observes, “It’s a truism that, in tech, the underdog always calls for openness until they’re the top dog.” (See: Amazon’s marketplace, Google’s search engine, etc.) The Windows app store pales in comparison to the dynamism of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android app stores, and Microsoft hopes to make it a more compelling hub for developers. It’s easy for Microsoft to present itself as so magnanimous. Countering Apple, Microsoft’s chief product officer, Panos Panay, noted at the Windows event that “we keep zero” in fees. At issue were Apple’s app store policies, which enforce onerous strictures on app developers, like preventing them from using their own payment methods and demanding steep cuts of transactions.
Apple just finished defending itself in courtroom hearings at an antitrust-related trial brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games last month. Microsoft’s emphasis on being “open” is a direct rebuttal of Apple’s comparatively “closed” stance. “Today the world needs a more open platform, one that allows apps to become platforms in their own right,” he told the audience, calling Microsoft’s new operating system a “platform for platform creators.” During his keynote address at Microsoft’s Windows 11 software unveiling on Thursday, CEO Satya Nadella used the opportunity to take a not-so veiled jab at Apple. Microsoft is taking advantage of that relative cover to knock rivals.
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