http://techfeed.net/blog/index.cfm News and Views, Yacoubean style en-us Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:51:55 -0600 Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:16:00 -0600 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss yacoubean@gmail.com yacoubean@gmail.com http://techfeed.net/blog/index.cfm/2006/3/30/IBM-offers-bribe-to-gain-Exchange-users IBM has <a href="http://news.com.com/IBM+offers+bounty+for+Exchange+customers/2100-7344_3-6055898.html">started a program</a> where they are going to pay consultant companies $20/seat for every company they convert to the Lotus Email server on Linux from Microsoft Exchange. This is a pretty dirty trick, but I'm not too upset because I like to see IBM trying to take the market dominance back from Exchange (everyone knows I'm not a Microsoft fan). According to IDC, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/intelligentinfrastructure/2005/08/23/lotus-microsoft-email-cz_dl_0823lotus.html">Microsoft leads the market share race</a> with 47% over IBM's 43% (Gartner estimates pretty similar numbers). These numbers kind of surprise me, because I thought Microsoft had a much larger lead. However, I do think this kind of marketing scheme could eventually land IBM in court. Anytime a company tries to coerce companies to move to their products, even if it is just a financial gain, is heading into antitrust realms. Microsoft IBM Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:16:00 -0600 http://techfeed.net/blog/index.cfm/2006/3/30/IBM-offers-bribe-to-gain-Exchange-users