Windows Media Player Focus Of Second Day Of Cross-Examination

Microsoft

States attorney John Schmidtlein questioned Averett, product unit manager for Windows Media Player, on features within Internet Explorer that appear to override a user's selection of default audio/video-playing software applications such as Real Networks' Real Player and Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Schmidtlein focused on a capability in the Windows Media bar in which users are given a choice to play an audio clip through IE if they click on "yes" in a pop-up dialog box.

"Does this dialog box provide sufficient information to users to know what they're selecting?" Schmidtlein asked Averett.

Averett replied that users could opt to click on "no" as easily as they could "yes." Still, Schmidtlein pointed out that a user who is not paying close attention might hit the return key and find their media player of choice replaced with Windows Media Player.

While ISVs can create similar control bars for competing media players, Windows will still kick off Windows Media Player features if users opt to play audio/visual files through IE, Schmidtlein said.

Averett responded that this was a "common paradigm" in the way users interact with software.

Microsoft's concerns regarding consumers' growing interest in Real Networks' media player was made apparent in a chain of e-mails among Microsoft executives that Schmidtlein displayed.

"One has to be very, very careful in blessing other formats," wrote Microsoft employee Fraser Mocke in an e-mail to other staff members. "You could lose your shirt in an instant," he added, referring to Microsoft's gains in the media player market.

Real Networks' software is "getting pretty ubiquitous now," Mocke wrote. "I'm concerned we're losing ground."

Averett, who was included in carbon copy toward the end of the e-mail chain, said she had no idea who Mocke was, but that he appeared to be a Microsoft employee from the look of his e-mail address.

The e-mail thread came to an end with a remark from Dave Fester, director of marketing for the Digital Media Division at Microsoft, and, Averett said, a superior of hers. "No more replies on this alias," Fester wrote. "We need to keep all of this off the airwaves."