In a statement issued last week, Mozilla criticized some of the restrictions that Microsoft plans to impose on the ARM version of Windows 8. The platform is not designed to support conventional native third-party applications, including rival browsers, in the classic desktop mode. Mozilla and Google say that the policy is detrimental to competition and user choice.

As we pointed out in our coverage of the issue, Microsoft’s policy is consistent with the that of other mobile platform vendors, including Apple. Modern mobile platforms increasingly confine developers to a platform-supplied API stack so that the operating system can more tightly control application behavior as needed to accommodate the limitations of a resource-constrained computing environment.

Mozilla’s recent objection to such policies focused entirely on Microsoft, ignoring the similar conditions that are present on Apple’s iOS platform. Harvey Anderson, Mozilla General Counsel, addressed that issue on Friday in a statement published by ComputerWorld. According to Anderson, the relevant factor is Microsoft’s monopoly status on the desktop.

“The difference here is that Microsoft is using its Windows monopoly power in the OS market to exclude competition in the browser market,” he said. “Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can’t do the same.”

Of course, the dominance of Windows doesn’t extend to the mobile space or ARM architecture. In the tablet market, which is the principle target of Windows on ARM, Microsoft will face an uphill battle against Apple’s entrenched position. It’s not clear that competition and choice are materially harmed by Microsoft’s decision to block rival browsers in the legacy desktop mode on ARM devices.

Bullets

Mozilla’s concerns about Windows on ARM attracted a lot of interest last week, but there are number of other bullet points to include in our roundup.