THEORY IN ACTIONTHE RISE OF

MICROSOFT
Syed Abbas Raza
(2012-369)
MM-494
Technology
Management
ASSIGNMENT # 1

Instructor: Dr. Cedric

Aimal Edwin
Q.1) What factors led to Microsofts emergence as the dominant personal computer operating
system provider? Is Microsoft dominance due to luck, skill or combination of both?
Ans.) Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen for designing and
selling BASIC language interpreters for the Altair 8800 series of micro-computers. There was
no discussion regarding the development of an operating system. The article itself mentions
the emergence of Microsoft as a result of a unique set of circumstances. The dominant
market of operating system and perhaps the only was CP/M developed by Gary kindall.
There was no initial interest in the potential market for personal computers so Microsoft did
not pay much heed to it. The advent of personal computers developed by Apple was the
reason for IBMs entry into the market. Whatever the reason Gary Kindall declined for the
partnership, the role went to Microsoft and hence the MS-DOS was developed which further
cumulated into the Microsoft windows. It must be mentioned that while Bill Gates did accept
the offer, he did not develop the software originally (from the scratch), instead he bought a
clone of the CP/M from a Seattle based company and modified it to work on the IBM
machines. Alright, so the market and the stage has been set but it takes more effort to
maintain position than to gain it and Microsoft is now the largest operating system provider.
Of course apart for the simple operating systems it develops, it underwent major acquisitions
in the 1990s , particularly the most recent being Swiftkey, Skype Technologies and Nokia.
So, with a total of 184 companies acquired and stakes in others, Microsoft has set to design
its unique IT ideology in the many market domains. So yes, it involves a considerable
number of skills and hard work, with more than your fair share of luck.

Q.2) How might the computing industry look different if Gary Kindall had signed with IBM?
Ans.) Well things will have looked remarkably different in one sense. Hypothetically
speaking, since the deal would have gone down to Gary kindall, Digital would gone to
become a household name in personal computers. Through acquisitions. It will have
expanded its customer and product base to retain hold of the PC market (maybe) or it could
have simply stuck like a nail in the floor to developing Operating Systems. Either way, if it
have made blockbuster acquisitions just like Microsoft did, it would have developed or
acquired multitude of products, services and features and integrated it into a successful
software that would have turned it into a tech giant. However, it could have not done the

acquisitions and remained a software (OS) developer and all the brilliant features would not
have happened (Powerpoint, Visio, Skype, Windows Phone, Internet Explorer). Microsoft
would not have gotten off to the success of the Windows OS hence it may not have become a
usual household name. It may have been sold off to larger firm or merged with Apple (Steve
Jobs) or another possibility that remains is that it may have held out till the recession when it
may have declared itself bankrupt and taken over. We may have not seen the Xbox consoles
comes to life to compete with the Nintendo and Sony brands. Apple laptops my have been
using Windows as Bill Gates may have gone to work for Apple due to the early failure for
Microsoft or it could have turn to developing Semi-conductor chips like intel. However, ifs
and buts will not resolve the issue over here. Gary Kindall flunked and so Bill Gates got the
pie.

Q.3) Does having a Dominant standard in operating systems benefit or hurts customers? Does
it benefit or hurt computer hardware producers?
Ans.) The presence of having a dominant standard of course limits the menu of choices for
the wide range of tastes that that people have. Many may find the dominant standards not
suited for their lifestyle/workstyle but will have very limited or no options to choose from.
The operating system is a particularly interesting field itself. The Dominant standard of
Microsoft encompasses people globally, so its consumer base is beyond imaginable. However
the issues have gradually which include sloppy work which has constantly presented itself in
Microsofts Operating Systems, most famously Windows Vista and the legendary internet
Explorer so customer frustration becomes an important issue and even more difficult to
manage as the base keeps getting grower, so the monopoly of dominant design makes a firm
feel indestructible, just like Lehman and Meryl Lynch did at once but that is slightly different
issue. The dominant standard however also provides a more accessible and widely understood
platform for people to get familiar with, they can access it more widely, they can understand
it more easily and of course a dominant design generally offers larger complementary goods
to its users. Look at Microsofts acquisitions and other ventures.
Of course a dominant standard makes it next to impossible, though Linux and Macintosh
have been thriving as good competitors, very few can make a strong presence but most
hardware producers are not rigidly focused on the dominant standard since it generates
market inflexibility but too much deviation may create a sort of a paradox such that there is a
dominant standard but no system to implement it/use it so where does the customer go.
Dominant standards will help guide the hardware producers to effectively produce for the
mass public instead for the specialized customers, it may also discourage innovation on
behalf of the developers, provided there isnt a strong entrepreneurial approach to the market.
Rather dominant standards keeps things such as production, global utilization and operations

as smooth as possible with minimum errors and risks included and faster diffusion. The
preference is left to the reader but complete dominance does hurt a little.