Research on Microsoft Corp Ration

8/8/2019 Research on Microsoft Corp Ration

1/15

RESEARCH

ON

PRESENTED BY

BHUPENDRA KUMAR

ONKAR PRASAD


2/15

SANDEEP KUMAR SINGH

introduction

Microsoft began using its current logo in Windows splash screenswith Windows 95.

Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation. Thehistory of Microsoft began on April 4, 1975, when it was founded byBill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque.

[1]Its current best-selling

products are the Microsoft Windowsoperating system and theMicrosoft Office suite of productivity software.

Starting in 1980, Microsoft formed an important partnership withIBM that allowed them to bundle Microsoft's operating system withcomputers that they sold, paying Microsoft a royalty for every sale. In1985, IBM requested that Microsoft write a new operating system fortheir computers called OS/2; Microsoft wrote the operating system,but also continued to sell their own alternative, which proved to be indirect competition with OS/2. Microsoft Windows eventuallyovershadowed OS/2 in terms of sales. When Microsoft launchedseveral versions ofMicrosoft Windows in the 1990s, they hadcaptured over 90% market share of the world's personal computers.

The company has now become largely successful. As of 2008,Microsoft has a global annual revenue ofUS$ 60.42billion andnearly 90,000 employees in 105 countries. It develops, manufactures,licenses, and supports a wide range ofsoftware products forcomputing devices.[2][3][4]


3/15

Contents

y 1 19751985: The founding ofMi osofty 2 19851991: The rise and fall of OS/2y 3 19921995: Domination ofthe corporate

market

y 4 19951999: Foray into the Web andother ventures

y 5 20002005: Legalissues, XP, and .NETy 62005present: Vista and othertransitionsy 7 See alsoy 8 References


4/15

19751985: The founding of Microsoft

Microsoft staff photo from December 7, 1978. From left to right:Top:Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane.Middle:Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin.

Bottom:Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen.

After reading the January 1, 1975 issue ofPopular Electronics thatdemonstrated the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of a newmicrocomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems),offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programminglanguage for the system.[5] Gates had neither an interpreter nor an Altair system,yet in the eight weeks before the demo he and Allen developed the interpreter.The interpreter worked at the demo and MITS agreed to distribute AltairBASIC.[6]Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico,

where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The nameMicrosoft(aportmanteau ofmicrocomputerand software), hyphenated in its early

incarnations, was first used in a letter from Gates to Allen on November 29,1975,

[6]and on November 26, 1976 the company was registered under that

name with the Secretary of State of New Mexico.[5] The company's firstinternational office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled"ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"), and on November 29, 1979,the term, "Microsoft" was first used by Bill Gates.[5] On January 1, 1979, thecompany moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.[5]


5/15

Steve Ballmerjoined the company on June 11, 1980, and would later succeedBill Gates as CEO.[5] The company restructured on June 25, 1981, to become anincorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change ofits name to "Microsoft, Inc." . As part ofthe restructuring, Bill Gates becamepresident ofthe company and Chairman ofthe Board, and Paul Allen became

Executive Vice President.[5]

The firstoperating systemthe company publicly released was a variant of Unixin 1980. Acquired from AT&Tthrough a distribution license, Microsoft dubbeditXenix, and hired Santa Cruz Operationin orderto port/adaptthe operatingsystemto several platforms.

[7][8]This Unix variant would become home to the

first version ofMicrosoft s word processor, Microsoft Word. Originally titled"Multi Tool Word", Microsoft Word became notable forits concept of"WhatYou See Is What You Get", orWYSIWYG.

Word was also the first application with such features as the ability to displaybold text. It was first released in the spring of 1983, and free demonstrationcopies ofthe application were bundled with the November 1983issue of PCWorld, making itthe first program to be distributed on-disk with a magazine.[9]However, Xenix was never sold to end users directly although it was licensed tomany software OEMs for resale. It grew to become the most popular version ofUnix, measured by the number of machines running it

[10](note that Unix is a

multi-user operating system, allowing simultaneous access to a machine byseveral users). By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out ofthe Unix business,except for an interestin SCO.

[7]

DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that broughtthecompany its real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with DigitalResearch failed, IBM awarded a contractto Microsoftto provide a version ofthe CP/M operating system, which was setto be used in the upcoming IBMPersonalComputer(PC). Forthis deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clonecalled 86-DOS from Tim Paterson ofSeattle Computer Products forless thanUS$100,000, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Microsoft did not have anoperating system when they closed the deal with IBM and IBM hadn't donetheir homework. Due to potentialcopyrightinfringement problems with CP/M,IBM marketed both CP/M and PC-DOS for US$240 and US$40, respectively,

with PC-DOS eventually becoming the standard because ofits lower price. [11][12]Around 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created ahome computer system, MSX, which contained its own version ofthe DOSoperating system, entitled MSX-DOS;this became relatively popularin Japan,Europe and South America. [6][13][14] Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PCclones afterColumbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBMBIOS,quickly followed by Eagle Computerand Compaq.

[15][16][17][18]The deal with


6/15

IBM allowed Microsoft to have control of its own QDOS derivative, MS-DOS,and through aggressive marketing of the operating system to manufacturers ofIBM-PC clones Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major softwarevendors in the home computer industry. [19] With the release of theMicrosoft

Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other

markets. This expansion included Microsoft Press, a book publishing division,on July 11 the same year.

19851991: The rise and fall of OS/2

The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The RedmondMicrosoft campus today includes more than 8 million square feet (approx.750,000 m) and 28,000 employees.[20]

Ireland became home to one of Microsoft's international production facility in1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version ofMicrosoft Windows (Windows 1.0), originally a graphical extension for its MS-

DOS operating system.[5]

In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in thedevelopment of a different operating system called OS/2. OS/2 was marketed inconnection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2.

[21]On

February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around onemonth later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising US$61million at US$21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risento US$28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2to OEMs.[22]

Meanwhile, Microsoft began introducing its most prominent office products.

Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features

typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other officeapplications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintoshtowards the end of 1986.

[6]Microsoft Works would later be sold with other

Microsoft products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Bookshelf, areference collection introduced in 1987 that was the company's first CD-ROMproduct.

[5][23]Later, on August 8, 1989, Microsoft would introduce its most

successful office product, Microsoft Office. Unlike the model of Microsoft


7/15

Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivityapplications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. WhileMicrosoft Word and Microsoft Office were mostly developed internally,Microsoft also continued its trend of rebranding products from other companies,such as Microsoft SQL Serveron January 13, 1988, a relational database

management system for companies that was based on technology licensed fromSybase.

[5]

On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[6] The new version ofMicrosoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined graphicuser interfaceGUI and improvedprotected mode capability for the Intel 386processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.[6][24] Windows at the timegenerated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided tomove more resources from OS/2 to Windows.[25] In an internal memo toMicrosoft employees on May 16, 1991, Bill Gates announced that the OS/2

partnership was over, and that Microsoft would henceforth focus its platformefforts on Windows and the Windows NTkernel.[26] Some people, especially

developers who had ignored Windows and committed most of their resources toOS/2, were taken by surprise, and accused Microsoft of deception. Thischangeover from OS/2 was frequently referred to in the industry as "the head-fake".

[27][28]In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows

quickly became the favored PC platform. 1991 also marked the founding ofMicrosoft Research, an organization in Microsoft for researching computerscience subjects, and Microsoft Visual Basic, a popular development productfor companies and individuals.

[5]

19921995: Domination of the corporate market

The Microsoft sign at the entrance of the German Microsoft campus, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 1, Unterschleiheim, Germany. Microsoft became an internationalcompany with headquarters in many countries.

During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft'sproduct Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.

[6][29]Novell, an

owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside


8/15

knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented ApplicationProgramming Interface features to make Office perform better than itscompetitors.[30] Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant businesssuite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[31] In March1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional

campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first twomonths on the market.

[5][6]In October, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was

released with integrated networking capabilities such aspeer-to-peerfile andprinting sharing.

[6]In November, Microsoft released the first version of their

popular database software Microsoft Access.[6]

The Microsoft sign at the entrance of the Dubai Microsoft campus, Dubai

Internet City. Microsoft has developed Arabic versions for most of its products.

By 1993, Windows had become the most widely used GUI operating system in

the world.[6]Fortune Magazine named Microsoft as the "1993 Most InnovativeCompany Operating in the U.S."[32] The year also marked the end of a five-yearcopyright infringement legal case brought by Apple Computer, dubbed AppleComputer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., in which the ruling was in Microsoft's favor,the release ofWindows for Workgroups 3.11, a new version of the consumerline of Windows, and Windows NT 3.1, a server-based operating system with asimilar user interface to consumer versions of the operating system, but with an

entirely different kernel.[6]

As part of its strategy to broaden its business,Microsoft released Microsoft Encarta on March 22, 1993, the first encyclopediadesigned to run on a computer.[5] Shortly after, the Microsoft Home brand wasintroduced - encompassing Microsoft's new multimedia applications forWindows 3.x., Microsoft changed its slogan to "Where do you want to gotoday?"in 1994 as part of an attempt to appeal to nontechnical audiences in a

US$100 million advertising campaign.[6]


9/15

Microsoft continued to make strategic decisions directed at consumers. Thecompany released MicrosoftBob, a graphical userinterface designed for novicecomputer users, in March 1995. The interface was discontinued in 1996 due topoor sales;Bill Gates later attributed its failure to hardware requirements thatwere too high fortypical computers;MicrosoftBob is widely regarded as

Microsoft's most unsuccessful product.[33][34]

DreamWorks SKG and Microsoftformed a new company, DreamWorks Interactive (in 2000 acquired by

Electronic Arts which named it EA Los Angeles), to produce interactive andmultimedia entertainment properties.[5] On August24, 1995, Microsoft releasedMicrosoft Windows 95, a new version ofthe company's flagship operatingsystem which featured a completely new userinterface, including a novel startbutton; more than a million copies ofMicrosoft Windows 95 were sold in thefirst four days afterits release.[6]

Windows 95 was released without a web browseras Microsoft had not yet

developed one. The success ofthe Internet caughtthem by surprise and theysubsequently approached Spyglassto license their browser as Internet Explorer.Spyglass went on to later dispute the terms ofthe agreement, as Microsoft wasto pay a royalty for every copy sold. However, Microsoft sold no copies ofInternet Explorer, choosing instead to bundle it for free with the operatingsystem.

Internet Explorer was firstincluded in the Windows 95 Plus! Packthat wasreleased in August 1995.

[35]In September, the Chinese government chose

Windows to be the operating system of choice in that country, and entered intoan agreement with the Company to standardize a Chinese version oftheoperating system.[6]Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder3D Projoystickin an attemptto further expand its profile in the computer hardwaremarket.

[6]

19951999: Foray into the Web and other ventures

On, May 26, 1995, Bill Gates sentthe "Internet Tidal Wave" memorandum toMicrosoft executives. The memo described Netscape with theirNetscapeNavigatoras a "new competitor 'born' on the Internet." The memo outlinesMicrosoft's failure to grasp the Internet's importance, and in it Gates assigns

"the Internetthis highestlevel ofimportance" from then on. [36]Microsoft beganto expand its productline into computer networking and the World Wide Web.On August24, 1995, itlaunched a major online service, MSN (MicrosoftNetwork), as a direct competitorto AOL. MSN became an umbrella service forMicrosoft's online services, using Microsoft Passport (now called WindowsLive ID) as a universallogin system for all ofits web sites.[5][6][37] The companycontinued to branch outinto new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture


10/15

withNBC to create a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC. The station waslaunched on July 15, 1996 to compete with similar news outlets such asCNN.[6][38] Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by MichaelKinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoonDoonesbury.[5] In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the

company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web fromtheir televisions.

[5]Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA)

market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version oftheir flagship operating system, specifically designed to run on low-memory,low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers.

[39]

1996 saw the release ofWindows NT 4.0, which brought the Windows 95 GUIand Windows NT kernel together.

[40]

While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in theearly 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to

enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. One of the mostprominent of these was ActiveX, an application programming interface built on

the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM); this enabled Microsoft andothers to embed controls in manyprogramming languages, including thecompany's own scripting languages, such as JScript and VBScript. ActiveXincluded frameworks for documents and server solutions.

[6]The company also

released the Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, which had built-in support for internetapplications.

[6]Later in 1997, Microsoft Office 97 as well as Internet Explorer

4.0 were released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser marketfrom rivalNetscape, and by agreement with Apple Computer, Internet Explorer

was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as withWindows.[6]

Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was releasedthis year, including a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make itmore appealing to corporate customers.

[39]In October, the Justice Department

filed a motion in the federal district court in which they stated that Microsofthad violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop thebundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[5]

A Windows 98 desktop


11/15

The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointingSteve Ballmeras president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEOhimself.[5] The company released an update to the consumer version ofWindows, Windows 98.[5] Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1(which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features

from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32file system, and new featuresspecifically for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays.

[41]Microsoft

launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become thecompany's second largest after its U.S. headquarters.

[6]Finally, a great deal of

controversy took place when a set of internal memos from the company wereleaked on the Internet. These documents, colloquially referred to as "TheHalloween Documents", were widely reported by the media and go into detailof the threats that free software / open source software poses to Microsoft's ownsoftware, previously voiced mainly by analysts and advocates of open sourcesoftware. The documents also allude to legal and other actions against Linux as

well as other open source software.[42][43]

While Microsoft acknowledges thedocuments, it claims that they are merely engineering studies. Despite this,however, some believe that these studies were used in the real strategies of thecompany.[44].

20002005: Legal issues, XP, and .NET

Bill Gates gives a presentation at IT-Forum in Copenhagen in 2004.

Microsoft, in 2000, released new products for all three lines of the company'sflagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one its mostprominent legal cases. On February 17, 2000, Microsoft released an update to

its business line of software in Windows 2000, which some considered to be asignificant improvement over previous versions. It provided an OS stabilitysimilar to that of its Unix counterparts due to its usage of the Windows NTkernel, and matching features for several of those found in the home line of theoperating system including a DOS emulatorthat could run many legacy DOSapplications.[6] On April 3, 2000, ajudgment was handed down in the case ofUnited States v. Microsoft,[45] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[46]and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling was


12/15

later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S.Department of Justice in 2001. On June 15, 2000 the company also released anew version of its hand-held operating system, Windows CE 3.0.[39] The mainchange was the new programming APIs of the software. Previous versions ofWindows CE supported only a small subset of the WinAPI, the main

development library for Windows, and with Version 3 of Windows CE, theoperating system now supported nearly all of the core functionality of the

WinAPI. The update to the consumer line, Windows Me (or WindowsMillennium Edition), was released on September 14, 2000.

[5]It sported several

new features such as enhanced multimedia capabilities and consumer-orientedPC maintenance options, but is often regarded as one of the worst versions ofWindows due to installation problems and other issues.

[34][47]

Windows XP introduced a new interface, along with many othernew features.This screenshot shows Windows XP Professional.

Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP in 2001, a version that aimed to

encompass the features of both its business and home product lines. The releaseincluded an updated version of the Windows 2000 kernel, enhanced DOSemulation capabilities, and many of the home-user features found in previousconsumer versions. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first suchchange since Windows 95.

[5][48]The operating system was the first to require

Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users toactivate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. Later, Microsoft wouldenter the multi-billion-dollargame console market dominated by Sony and

Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox.

[5]

The Xbox finished way behind thedominant PlayStation 2 selling 24 million units compared to the PlayStation 2's136 million however they managed to outsell theNintendo Gamecube whichfinished on 21 million units. Microsoft launched their second console the Xbox360 in 2005 which has turned out to be a lot more successful then their firstconsole selling 40 million units as of 2010 and outselling Sony's PlayStation 3which has so far sold 35 million. However despite beating them with their lastconsole Microsoft have so far been outsold by theNintendo Wii which has


13/15

introduced motion control and has opened up a new market for video games.Microsoft are hoping that their controller free experience Kinect which they willrelease in November will help them take some of the Wii's 71 millionconsumers so far as of 2010. [49]

In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions ofsome of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.[5] Theinitiative has been an entirely new development API for Windowsprogramming, and includes a new programming language, C#. Windows Server2003 was launched, featuring enhanced administration capabilities, such as newuser interfaces to server tools.[6] In 2004, the company released Windows XPMedia Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP specifically designed formultimedia capabilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version ofWindows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers.[5]However, Microsoft would encounter more turmoil in March 2004 when

antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union forallegedly abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft

antitrust case). Eventually Microsoft was fined497 million (US$613 million),ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a newversion of its Windows XP platform called Windows XP Home Edition Nthat did not include its Windows Media Player.

[50][51]Microsoft was also ordered

to produce separate packages of Windows after South Korea also landed asettlement against the company in 2005. It had to pay out US$32 million andproduce more than one version of Windows for the country in the same vein asthe European Union-one with Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger

and one without the two programs.

[52]

2005present: Vista and other transitions

Windows Vista is one of Microsoft's latest client operating systems, whichfeatures a new visual style, Windows Aero.

In guise of competing with otherInternet companies such as the search serviceGoogle, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN searchservice.

[53]Later, in 2006, the company launched Microsoft adCenter, a service


14/15

that offerspay per clickadvertisements, in an effortto further develop theirsearch marketing revenue. [54] Shortly afterward, Microsoft created the CodePlexcollaborative development site for hosting open source projects. Activity grewquickly as developers from around the world began to participate, and by early2007 commercial open source companies, such as Aras Corp,.[55] began to offer

enterprise open source software exclusively on the Microsoft platform.

On June 15, 2006Bill Gates announced his plans for a two yeartransitionperiod out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008. Afterthatdate, Gates will continue in his role as the company's chairman, head oftheBoard of Directors and act as an adviser on key projects. His role as ChiefSoftware Architect will be filled immediately by Ray Ozzie, the ChiefTechnical Officerofthe company as of June 15, 2006.

[56]Bill Gates stated "My

announcementis not a retirement its a reordering of my priorities."[57]

Formerly codenamed "Longhorn"in the early development stages, WindowsVista was released to consumers on January 30, 2007. [58][59]Microsoft alsoreleased a new version ofits Office suite, called Microsoft Office 2007,alongside Windows Vista. Windows Server2008 and Visual Studio 2008, thenext versions ofthe company's serveroperating system and development suite,respectively, have been released to manufacturing, and are scheduled to bereleased on February 27, 2008.

[60]

On December 19, 2007, Microsoft signed a five year, $500 million contractwith Viacomthatincluded content sharing and advertisement. The deal allowedMicrosoftto license many shows from Viacom owned cable televi sion and filmstudios for use on Xbox Live and MSN. The deal also made Viacom a preferredpublisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSNand Windows. On the advertisement side ofthe deal, Microsoft's Atlas ad-serving division became the exclusive provider of previously unsold advertisinginventory on Viacom owned web sites. Also, Microsoft also purchased a largeamount of advertising on Viacom owned broadcasts and online networks.Finally, Microsoft will also collaborate on promotions and sponsorships forMTV and BET award shows, two Viacom owned cable networks. [61]

In 2008, Microsoft wanted to purchase Yahoo (first completely, later partially)

in orderto strengthen its position on the search engi ne market vis--visGoogle.[62][63] The company rejected the offer, saying thatit undervalued thecompany. In response, Microsoft withdrew its offer. [cit

ti

]

In 2009, the opening show ofthe Consumer Electronics Show (CES) washosted by Steve Ballmerforthe firsttime. In past years, it has been hosted by

Bill Gates. In the show, Ballmer announced the first public Beta Test of


15/15

Windows 7 for partners and developers on January 8, but also for general publicon January 10.

On June 26, 2009 Microsoft started taking pre-orders at a discounted price forWindows 7 which was launched on October22, 2009.