An expert witness in the Vista
class-action
suit against Microsoft has claimed that the company made more than $1.5bn
(£1.02bn) as a result of its Vista Capable marketing campaign.
According to documents released to the court, Keith Leffler, an associate
professor in the University of Washington's Department of Economics, used
Microsoft's own figures to estimate that the company made huge revenues from
badging some computers as capable of running Vista before the operating system
was released.
"I have been asked by plaintiffs' counsel to estimate the amount of revenue
earned by Microsoft from the licensing of Windows XP on Vista Capable, but not
Vista Premium Ready PCs sold to plaintiffs," his report states.
"In Microsoft's Supplemental Responses it estimates that it received revenue
of [redacted] from Windows XP licences on upgradeable PCs sold in the US during
the April 2006 through January 2007 period.
"From these figures I have therefore reached the opinion that Microsoft
revenue from the Windows XP licensing on Vista Capable, but not Vista Premium
Ready PCs sold to plaintiffs, was $1.505bn."
If accepted the figure could be used as a benchmark if the court finds
against Microsoft.
The class-action suit alleges that Vista Capable computers sold before the
release of the new operating system were capable of running only the most basic
version of Vista, which the plaintiffs claim is virtually the same in function
as Windows XP.
Microsoft has
tried
unsuccessfully to dismiss the case, or at least to have evidence kept out of
the public record. The company has been
embarrassed
by a series of emails from its
partners
and own senior management lambasting the marketing programme.
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