War of the Words, Chapter 2 - Products, Innovation and Market Share (an ODF-OOXML eBook)
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This is the second chapter in a real-time eBook writing project I launched and explained last week. The following chapter on how Microsoft acquired its dominant position in a few products, and failed to succeed in others, is one of a number of stage-setting chapters to follow. Comments, corrections and suggestions gratefully accepted.
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Microsoft is the envy of many vendors for the hugely dominant position it enjoys in two key product areas: PC desktop operating systems – the software that enables and controls the core functions of personal computers - and "office productivity software" – the software applications most often utilized by PC users, whether at work or at home, to create documents, slides and spreadsheets and meet other common needs. Microsoft's 90% plus market share in such fundamental products is almost unprecedented in the technical marketplace, and this monopoly position enables it to charge top dollar for such software. It also makes it easy for Microsoft to sell other products and services to the same customers.
Microsoft acquired this enviable position in each case through a combination of luck, single-minded determination, obsessive attention to detail, and a willingness to play the game fast and hard – sometimes hard enough to attract the attention of both Federal and state antitrust regulators. Moreover, while Bill Gates and his co-founders rarely displayed the creative and innovative flair of contemporaries like Apple's Steve Jobs, neither were they troubled by the type of "not invented here" bias that sometimes led other vendors to pursue unique roads that sometimes led to dead ends. Instead, in those pre-software patent days, they copied already successful products in the marketplace. And what Microsoft couldn't copy, it was more than happy to buy. Full Story |
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