Lawyers for Microsoft finished up their opening statements this morning in the state’s lawsuit against the computer software giant. Microsoft began its opening statements Monday in Polk County District Court and spent about three-and-a-half days presenting its case. The state of Iowa is alleging Microsoft tried to monopolize the market for its popular software such as Word and Excel.

Microsoft lawyer Rich Wallis says their opening statements focused on the value the company gives customers. Wallis says this case is about pricing as the prices of the software came down in the past 18 years, and the price has stayed relatively stable while the stuff the software can do has increased.

Wallis says customers voted with their wallets and found “they’ve gotten a great value from Microsoft products.” Wallis says they also tried to show that Microsoft put out a better product. He says quality is an important issue, as are features and functionality of the software. Wallis says Microsoft puts and enormous amount of money into research and development. Wallis says to be popular with consumers, you have to have the right price and give consumers value for their money.

Wallis says the opening statements are key to a case that will take months to complete. Wallis says plaintiffs have said it will take many, many months for them to present their case. So, Wallis says it’s important to be able give the jury a frame of reference to how to listen to all that evidence. Wallis says since they won’t have an opportunity to put on their witnesses for months, it’s important to explain how their witnesses will testify once they get on the stand.

Wallis says he believes they made a solid choice in their opening statements
With both side’s opening statements now complete, Roxanne Conlin began presenting the state?s case in the Polk County courtroom.