At the beginning of the 1990s, Microsoft bundled its Internet Explorer web browser within its Windows operating system which helped it acquire a dominant position in the web browser market. From Microsoft’s point of view, putting these two products together was a way to be “user-friendly” for those consumers that were not computer savvy. The company reasoned that due to innovation and competition, both products had become essentially one, and thanks to this synergy it provided consumers with double the benefits for free. Competitors, such as Netscape, stated that the browser was a distinct and separate product so there was no reason for it to be automatically bundled with its operating system. Further, Microsoft was accused of altering its application programming interfaces to favor Internet Explorer.
