Microsoft, Channel Stuffing and Desperation: Old Tricks for a New Era

[MikeB]

"Now some might argue that retailers won't want to take inventory they don't want this time of year. But Microsoft has a nice trump card to play here. They simply say, "Well, we have a big consumer product launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 coming up on January 30. Those who don't take XBox 360s might have some trouble getting inventory of those products." And given that those products are pretty much guaranteed to sell in the millions of units for the year at price points of hundreds of dollars, most retailers will just take the XBoxes and call it a day."

Remember Gateway's and other companies' antitrust cases against Microsoft which sadly got bought-off by M$?

If the allegation is true I think Microsoft should receive some serious penalties for abusing their PC monopoly!