Microsoft’s Office Open XML fails to win international standard

7 September, 2007

A panel of software experts has rejected Microsoft’s request to have its open document format, Office Open XML, recognized as an international standard.

The decision has complicated efforts by Microsoft to extend its dominance in the emerging field of open documents.

After five months of electronic balloting, Microsoft failed to meet the two voting criteria to win a designation as an approved standard from the Geneva-based International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

According to analysts, the fight over the standard is commercially important because more governments are demanding interchangeable open document formats for their vast amounts of records instead of proprietary formats tied to one company’s software. The only standardized format now available to government buyers is OpenDocument Format, developed by a consortium led by the International Business Machines (IBM), which the ISO approved in May 2006.

The timing of the decision may be inopportune for Microsoft, coming two weeks before the European Court of First Instance is to rule on its appeal of the European Commission’s 2004 antitrust decision against the company.

Of the 87 countries that participated, 26% opposed Microsoft’s bid. Under the rules for approval, no more than 25% of the countries should oppose the bid.

Microsoft also failed to win the vote of 66% of 41 countries on another panel of ISO and IEC members.

The critics of Microsoft say the company’s dominance of personal computer software gives it an unfair advantage, while the company maintains that its innovations and technical expertise make for superior products.

Over 90% of all digital text documents in the world are in Microsoft formats, according to the consulting firm Gartner. Many national and local governments in Europe and some in the United States are asking for open formats to reduce their reliance on Microsoft.

In an open format, the computer code is public, which allows developers to create new products that use it without paying royalties.

Tom Robertson, Microsoft’s general manager for interoperability and standards, predicted that Microsoft's format would be eventually adopted. He added: “Open XML is already widely available and is being used by Apple and Novell. It is in the Palm operating system, and in the Java and Linux operating environments.”

Some critics of Microsoft blamed the company’s own aggressive lobbying for its defeat.

A member of an advisory panel that voted on the standards issue in Malaysia said Microsoft’s lobbying in the country had reached into high levels of government.

The Industry Standards Committee on Information Technology of Malaysia decided to vote against Microsoft’s format, but the Malaysian government abstained in the end.