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Sixth Release On Tuesday, December 15, the government released a one-hour portion of the videotaped deposition of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates taken for the U.S. v. Microsoft antitrust trial. Full text of the deposition portions are below. Editor's Note: There may be errors in the text resulting from the scanning process.
Q: BY MR. HOUCK: I'd like you to look at
Trial Exhibit 336, Mr. Gates, right here in front of you.
This is a memorandum that purports to be from you to
your executive staff dated May 22, 1996, and it
attaches, for want of a better word, an essay
entitled "The Internet PC" dated April 10, 1996.
Q: Do you recall writing the essay dated
April 10, 1996 entitled "The Internet PC"?
Q: The portion I refer you to is at the
bottom of the first page under the heading called
"The Latest Killer App." Do you see that?
Q: First paragraph under that heading
reads as follows: "Our industry is always looking
for the next 'killer application'-- for a category of
software that, by its utility and intelligent design,
becomes indispensable to millions of people. Word
processors and spreadsheets were the killer
applications for business PCs starting in 1981."
Q: Do you have any reason to believe you didn't write it?
Q: Can you explain what you meant here by
describing the Web browser as a "killer app"?
Q: Is a killer application an application
that drives sales of other products like operating
systems and hardware?
Q: Do you have a definition in your own
mind of killer application?
Q: Let me resort again to the Microsoft
computer dictionary, and I'll read you what that says
about killer applications. You may disagree with it,
and if so, you can tell me.
The Microsoft computer dictionary, 1997
edition, defines killer app as follows, and it gives
two definitions. And I 'll
be very complete this
time, Mr. Gates.
End of segment
Q: The second definition is, "An application that supplants its competition."
End of segment Q: What about a relationship to an
operating system?
Q: What other applications would you
identify as being killer applications?
End of segment Q: Does Microsoft endeavor to track its
market share with respect to operating systems on
personal computers?
Q: Is
there anybody in Microsoft
responsible for trying to determine what Microsoft's
market share is with respect to PC operating systems?
Q: Have you seen any figures indicating
what Microsoft's market share is with respect to
operating systems on personal computers?
End of segment Q: I'd like you to turn to the page of
this document that ends in 022. And the heading
reads "x86 OS Analysis for Fiscal Year '96."
Q: On the page that is titled "x86 OS
Analysis for Fiscal Year '96" appears a statement,
"All other competitive licenses, less than 5%"
Q: What is your understanding of what the
Microsoft market share was at that time?
Q: Do you have any idea, as you sit here
today, what Microsoft's market share is with respect
to operating systems sold for x86 architecture
computers?
Q: What other companies besides Microsoft
sell operating systems for x86 architecture
computers?
Q: Can you identify them?
Q: Do you have any estimate as to what the
collective market share of those companies is with
respect to operating systems sold for x86
architecture PCs?
Q: Is it under 10 percent?
End of segment Q: BY MR. HOUCK:
Would you take a look at
Exhibit
339, Mr.
Gates. Exhibit
339
contains a
number of e-mails, and I want to ask
you a
couple
questions about one on the first page from Russell
Siegelman to yourself and others re
MCI
as an access
provider dated October
13, 1994.
Q: Do you have any reason to believe you
didn't get it?
Q: What was Mr. Siegelman's position in
October of '94?
Q: And what was Marvel?
Q: Do you understand that in this e-mail
here Mr. Siegelman is opposing a proposal to give MCI
a position on the Windows 95 desktop as an Internet
service provider?
Q: It references in this e-mail the
Windows box. What do you understand the Windows-box
to mean?
Q: Is
it your understanding that when he
uses "Windows box" here, he means a piece of
cardboard?
End of segment (Record read.)
Q: BY MR. HOUCK: In the e-mail he refers
to Windows distribution as a unique and valuable
asset, more specifically as "our one unique and
valuable asset." Do you see that?
Q: Do you have an understanding as to what
he meant?
End of segment Q: Do you have any understanding as to
what Mr. Siegelman meant here by his reference to
Windows distribution being "our one unique and
valuable asset"?
Q: Yes, sir.
THE WITNESS: Well, maybe there is some understanding -- you said do I understand what he meant. I thought you were asking about his e-mail as a whole. BY MR. HOUCK:
Let me re-ask it for the
third time and see if I can get an answer.
Q: BY MR. HOUCK: Do you
understand that
Mr. Siegelman in his reference had in mind the large
market share that Microsoft has with respect to
operating systems?
Q: That's not your understanding?
Q: Do you
consider Windows distribution a
unique asset of Microsoft?
Q: Again, let me ask the question,
Mr. Gates. I wasn't asking about Marvel. I was
asking about Windows distribution.
End of segment Q: BY MR. HOUCK:
Let me put the question again without reference to this document. Mr. Gates,
do you believe that Windows distribution is a unique
asset that Microsoft has?
Q: BY MR. HOUCK: Do you have an
understanding what Mr. Siegelman meant by the phrase
"Windows distribution" in his e-mail that he wrote to
you?
Q: And by "the desktop," you mean the
windows desktop?
End of segment
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