Who Should Get to Assign Desktop Icons?
The Irrelevance of the Browser Wars At the Senate hearings, and in the media, considerable attention has been given to the claim that Microsofts desire to prevent OEMs from removing the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop was somehow inimical to competition. This section explains why Microsoft and OEMs might each want to control the placement of desktop icons and provides an economic framework for deciding who should be allowed to control the desktop icons. Ultimately, though, it turns out that icon placement should probably not matter to even the computer and software industry, much less to antitrust enforcers. Control of the desktop might be valuable since, as a practical matter, all computer users see the desktop. In principle, desktop placements of advertisements, whether a program or a message, could be sold to companies interested in such exposure. For example, assume that an icon for America Online appears on the desktop. Consumers interested in an online service might just
