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Competitors claim Microsoft security application pricing ruthless
When Microsoft announced their decision to enter into the security applications market, many people said that it was bad news for competitors like McAfee and Symantec.
Now that we indeed have a product available from Microsoft in the form of Windows Live OneCare, we know Microsoft is pretty serious about it.
Competitors have said that the low pricing of this security application is ruthless and predatory for this market, which makes billions of dollars for the industry.
Alex Eckelberry of Sunbelt Software spoke about their fears: “Microsoft’s practicing a form of predatory pricing. Predatory pricing relies on a manufacturer losing money in the short term to dive out competitors in the long term.”
He added: “One could argue whether [this pricing] is an antitrust issue, but it has a potentially chilling effect on the security landscape.”
Microsoft responded to these claims in a statement: “The market is full of opportunity for all security vendors to play a role in customer security. We believe that Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Antigen products provide a good value to customers and that all firms should compete to provide good value.”