"Because Microsoft seems to sometimes not trust customer choice, they salt XP with all these little gizmos and trap doors to get people to try Microsoft stuff. But the reality is that we're downloading more players than we ever have on a worldwide basis"
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Glaser is doing two things at once: prosecuting Microsoft for coercion while quietly flexing that coercion doesn’t work anymore. The phrase “salt XP” is loaded on purpose. It suggests something sprinkled in your food when you’re not looking: tiny additions that change behavior without asking permission. Pair that with “gizmos and trap doors” and Windows stops being a neutral platform and becomes a rigged casino floor, full of hidden routes that nudge you toward “Microsoft stuff.” For a software CEO who lived through the browser wars, that imagery isn’t accidental; it’s antitrust rhetoric translated into plainspoken annoyance.
The subtext is competitive anxiety wrapped in confidence. Glaser ran RealNetworks, a company whose fortunes rose and fell with what Windows chose to bundle. When he says Microsoft “doesn’t trust customer choice,” he’s calling out a strategy of default power: win not by making the best product, but by making the decision for the user before the user even notices there was a decision. It’s also an attempt to frame his own company as the consumer-friendly underdog: we believe in choice, they fear it.
Then comes the pivot: “we’re downloading more players than we ever have.” That’s both reassurance to investors and a subtle threat to Microsoft’s narrative of inevitability. Even if Windows plants trap doors, the web is big, global, and porous. People still go looking. Glaser’s real intent is to argue that bundling distorts the market while insisting he can survive it - a protest that doubles as a performance of resilience.
The subtext is competitive anxiety wrapped in confidence. Glaser ran RealNetworks, a company whose fortunes rose and fell with what Windows chose to bundle. When he says Microsoft “doesn’t trust customer choice,” he’s calling out a strategy of default power: win not by making the best product, but by making the decision for the user before the user even notices there was a decision. It’s also an attempt to frame his own company as the consumer-friendly underdog: we believe in choice, they fear it.
Then comes the pivot: “we’re downloading more players than we ever have.” That’s both reassurance to investors and a subtle threat to Microsoft’s narrative of inevitability. Even if Windows plants trap doors, the web is big, global, and porous. People still go looking. Glaser’s real intent is to argue that bundling distorts the market while insisting he can survive it - a protest that doubles as a performance of resilience.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
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