Regulators have little choice other than to focus on PC-based software, experts say -- after all, they're looking specifically at how the company may have abused its operating system dominance, and can't speculate on what might happen in new technology markets.
On the media player side, at least, it's clear Microsoft has moved its ambitions, and its fingerprints, well beyond the PC.
For years now, the company has been assiduously courting big record companies and movie studios in hopes that they would release digital content in Microsoft's media format. This is starting to pay off. Most new online music services, barring Apple's and RealNetworks' stores, sell music in Microsoft's format and use a variation of the Media Player.
Microsoft's relationships with Hollywood studios are improving too. The company recently announced a broad alliance with Disney, under which Disney would license Microsoft's digital rights management tools and explore ways the companies could release content together, such as using the high-definition Windows Media format.
Microsoft's media format is now supported by dozens of MP3 players and other portable devices. The format is beginning to show up on copy-protected audio CDs around the world. And most recently, a DVD standards group gave provisional approval for Microsoft's video compression technology to be included in the next-generation specifications for high-resolution DVD video.
All of this is a sign that the digital media industry, and Microsoft with it, is looking well beyond the personal computer and the PC-based media player.
To be sure, analysts say, the PC remains at the core of Microsoft's strategy. The company views Windows-based machines, such as the Media Centre displayed at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), as the hub of a digital media environment. For this to be entirely advantageous to Microsoft, those PCs must also be loaded with the Windows Media Player.
