ICPs create the content that fills the pages that make up the Web. Because this content can include advertisements and links to download sites, ICPs also provide a channel for the promotion and distribution of Web browsing software. Nevertheless, protecting the applications barrier to entry was of such high priority at Microsoft that its senior executives were willing to invest significant resources to enlist even ICPs in the effort. Microsoft entered into contracts that prohibited ICPs from compensating Netscape for promotion of the providers' content and from including download links to Navigator on their sites. Constricted in using those distribution channels by Microsoft's exclusionary conduct, Navigator was relegated to more costly and significantly less effective modes of distribution.
Distribution is very unimportant relative to usage.
Compare MS Br. According to estimates that Microsoft executives cited to support their testimony in this trial, and those on which Microsoft relied in the course of its business planning, the shares of all browser usage enjoyed by Navigator and Internet Explorer changed dramatically in favor of Internet Explorer after Microsoft began its campaign to protect the applications barrier to entry. By late 1998, Microsoft's estimates showed that Navigator and IE had achieved near parity, with Navigator slightly ahead. Moreover, the court found that the trend is clearly in Microsoft's direction. The most reasonable prediction, then, is that by January 2001, Internet Explorer's usage share will exceed sixty percent while Navigator's share will have fallen below forty percent.