In a statement issued prior to yesterday's conference call, which was hosted by senior vice president and general counsel, Brad Smith, Microsoft announced that it would reveal "expanded developments around access to previously unavailable Microsoft innovation and R&D", in addition to discussing "a new overarching policy designed to increase access to Microsoft technology for industry participants".

As part of its antitrust settlement with the US government, Microsoft was ordered to provide access to some of its code under "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms, in order to allow its rivals to develop products which are compatible with the Windows operating system.

However, according to reports, the program announced on Wednesday goes far beyond what is required of the company by the courts. A Microsoft spokesman confirmed this, explaining that the announcement is "not related to our compliance program or anything related to the settlement".