The United States of America v. Microsoft: Taking a Closer Look at Server Operating Systems

A. Demand Substitutability

1. Server Operating Systems

19. Consumers could not turn from Intel-compatible PC operating systems to Intel-compatible server operating systems without incurring substantial costs, since the latter type of system is sold at a significantly higher price than the former.

A consumer intent on acquiring a server operating system would also have to buy a computer of substantially greater power and price than an Intel-compatible PC, because server operating systems generally cannot function properly on PC hardware.

The price of an Intel-compatible PC operating system accounts for only a very small percentage of the price of an Intel-compatible PC system. Thus, even a substantial increase in the price of an Intel-compatible PC operating system above the competitive level would result in only a trivial increase in the price of an Intel-compatible PC system.

Very few consumers would purchase expensive servers in response to a trivial increase in the price of an Intel-compatible PC system.

Furthermore, a consumer would not obtain a satisfactory substitute for an Intel-compatible PC operating system even if he purchased a server, since server operating systems lack the features — and support for the breadth of applications — that induce users to purchase Intel-compatible PC operating systems.

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This court case Civil Action No. 98-1232 (TPJ) retrieved on 1-19-2023, from justice.gov is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction.