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Microsoft Case Summary
Vaporware is the term we use for a product that is pre-announced even though it is nowhere near completion. Microsoft is one good example of how firms pre-announce products to stifle competition and to stay in the news. In 1991, when most of us had no idea that Microsoft was planning to launch an advanced version of its old operating system Windows 3.1, the company came out with an announcement that took most rivals and users by surprise. Microsoft announced that it was working on a new operating system called Chicago whose beta version would be launched somewhere in 1992 while the final version would appear in December 1993. 1992 came and went without any news of Chicago coming into the market and this was a major setback for users who had been eagerly awaiting the release of this new operating system. It was only later that people learned that even the specs of the product, which had to be completed by Oct 1991, had yet to be given final touches by the end of 1992. Since the specs took so long to be finalized, Microsoft rescheduled the release date and this time, announced that shipping of the product would begin by the end of 1994. However to cut a long story short, no beta or final version of Chicago appeared in 1994 and by this time, users had almost given up hope of ever seeing the product and thus Chicago became a vaporware. The year 1995 finally saw the release of Chicago but it had been renamed as Windows 1995. Many believe that Microsoft deliberately pre-announced the product so it could crush its competitors' hopes of making use of Microsoft's absence from the market. MS knew that IBM was working on its new operating system, which could significantly reduce the sales of Chicago if it were released after OS 2.2 and for this reason it kept pre-announcing the product. Some are of the view that what Microsoft did was similar to what IBM used to do in its heydays. When IBM was at its peak, it would adopt this strategy of pre-announcing since it enjoyed a favorable position in the market and knew customers would wait for its product instead of jumping at a new rival product. Microsoft followed the same strategy because now it enjoys an enviable position in the market and can easily dictate the rules.
Microsoft Access Computing technology has greatly aided human technology and has presented new and easier ways for goals and objectives to be accomplished by its users. Technology works best when it is mostly aligned with the intent and purposes of its wielders and it is important to understand and know how such applications work and operate in order to get the most out of these tools. The purpose of this essay is
Microsoft DuPont DuPont Analysis of Microsoft DuPont Analysis Overview The DuPont Analysis is a type of analysis that provides a more detailed look at a company's Return on Equity (ROE) by breaking it into three main components. The three components are profit margin, asset turnover and a leverage factor. By separating the ROE into these smaller categories, investors can quickly identify how effectively or efficiently a company is using their resources. If any
Microsoft Monopoly Why was Microsoft investigated for antitrust behavior? In the eyes of some legal analysts, Microsoft was investigated and taken to court over antitrust allegations because of the belief that it would not live up to its own word about what it intended (McKenzie and Shughart, 1998). There was little doubt about the fact that by the mid- to late-1990s Microsoft had virtual control over the operating system (Windows) that it
Microsoft's Vega Project Microsoft Vega Project Companies' success on the market relies on the performance of their employees, which is determined by several factors. Human resources practices in these companies aim at recruiting and maintaining skilled employees that can develop as strong assets to them, while developing motivational strategies in accordance with employees' needs and preferences. Microsoft is one of the companies that invest the most in the development of their employees. Situation
Microsoft Windows File Systems: Comparison and Contrast The standard versions of Windows use three types of file systems: FAT, exFAT, and NTFS. Windows 8 server also uses ReFS. The 8 server (Windows Server 2012) is the only version that uses that type of file system, as the other versions of Windows are not able to boot from that type of file system at all. In order to better understand these file
Microsoft Monopoly Assessment of Microsoft's Monopoly Microsoft has for decades engaged in commercial activities both with its direct enterprise customers and its many distribution channel partners that could be considered monopolistic. While Microsoft has long asserted it is one of the most efficient competitors there are in an oligopolistically-based market of enterprise and consumer software, in reality its strategies and tactics show a pattern of deliberate monopolistic behavior (Information Management, 2009). Microsoft