About $1 billion is channeled into R&D, Maritz said.

Microsoft_s star witness, Paul Maritz, denied Monday he had ever said Microsoft wanted to "cut off Netscape_s air supply" with its browser strategy. That quote, attributed to Maritz, Microsoft_s group vice president of platforms and applications, by an Intel executive has been a flashpoint of the trial. The government is trying to prove Microsoft used the heft of its operating systems monopoly to bully partners and competitors alike and to further entrench and expand its power… Courtroom spectators were on the edges of their seats, as lead prosecutor David Boies said Maritz was "considerably less positive" about this when he was deposed last October, pointing out that testimony. At that time, Maritz said he had no recollection of saying that -- that it "was possible, but I just don_t recall." The quote came into play after Intel vice president Steven McGeady attributed it to Maritz earlier in the antitrust trial. However, McGeady_s contemporaneous notes of the meeting did not include reference to the quote, according to Microsoft attorneys. After the hearing, Microsoft senior vice president of legal affairs Bill Neukom said Maritz had not contradicted himself -- that his testimony was "straightforward and consistent." After the initial deposition, Maritz revisited his testimony in "a search for the truth," Neukom said. On another major point, Maritz also contradicted testimony from Apple executive Avie Tevanian that the giant software company used Microsoft Office for the Macintosh "as a club" to force Apple to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, rather than Netscape Navigator, as its default browser. Maritz maintained that for Microsoft, the main point of its August 1997 pact with Apple was to get rid of patent issues between the companies. Apple had a long standing patent-infringement suit against Microsoft at that time. According to a July 21, 1997, e-mail from Microsoft chief financial officer Greg Maffei to chairman Bill Gates, there were four terms of the deal, none of which included IE. Boies said the two companies had previously discussed IE, and there was an earlier agreement for Apple to include IE. Maritz agreed but said that did not include IE as the default browser. Earlier in the day, the courtroom viewed several taped demonstrations, geared to show Linux as a viable OS competitor to Windows. Another was a demonstration of an IBM network computer, the Network Station 1000 with built-in browsing, which the company also painted as a competitive technology. When Boies tried to get Maritz to pinpoint just how lucrative the Windows market is for Microsoft, Maritz acknowledged the OS generates about $3 billion per year in revenue, but the company does not break out profit figures. Of that revenue, about $1 billion is channeled into R&D, Maritz said.