FTC going after Intel for being a monopoly
http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/12/intel.shtm
The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the worlds leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the brains of a computer.
According to the FTC complaint, Intels anticompetitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market. Over the last decade, this strategy has succeeded in maintaining the Intel monopoly at the expense of consumers, who have been denied access to potentially superior, non-Intel CPU chips and lower prices, the complaint states.
Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly, said Richard A. Feinstein, Director of the FTCs Bureau of Competition. Its been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits. The Commissions action today seeks to remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer.
this is a total load of horseshit. monopoly, mono, one. intel is far from being the ‘one’ microprocessor developer or manufacturer. what about amd, via, mips, arm, power, m68k, 6502, dragonball, powerpc, itanium, microblaze, pic, atmel, etc.? there are more arm cpus in the world than x86. one in just about every single cell phone, nintendo gba and two in ever ds. where’s the outrage?
the only monopoly here is that which the government artificially created… the intellectual property monopoly on the x86 architecture and related parts. amd and via and anyone else should be able to make an x86 compatible chip without intervention. what intel is being accused of is entirely legitimate, though sneaky. paying their customers or selling their product cheaper to them is by its nature competitive as is writing *their* own compiler to perform better on their chips (or the competitions worse) . and if they make exclusive or restrictive deals so what? that’s the customers decision. if they don’t like the conditions don’t sign the contract. use via or amd or arm.
the government has absolutely no business morally or authority constitutionally to interfere with voluntary business. if they got out of the business of creating cartels and monopolies there would be no need for them to break up supposed monopolies… which by the very definition of the word these conditions do not fit. allow real competition and empower the consumer.
