I chuckled while reading this article about Microsoft and how essentially most of the entire software industry totally revolves around them. It is their "ecosystem."
As you know, I spent from around 1985 to 2001 in the software business. I lived through the growth of a tremendous industry and the creation of an incredible monopoly called Microsoft.
We had numerous times where we were helped by Microsoft and other times where it seemed that our little company could get crushed by them. They parlayed their incredible stroke of luck/genius of control of the operating system into a massive company controlling most anything they wanted to control.
I will say that many companies like ours benefited from the fact that there really was only a single operating system to develop for. If there were many competing operating systems it would have made it much more expensive to develop applications like ACT! and SalesLogix for numerous operating systems. This did make life simpler. But it also created a monster.
This article does a good job of painting a picture of just how dominant MS is. A recent experience with this was a few years ago when I was helping to raise venture money for a software company that I was involved with. I noticed something I had not known before. Every time I made a presentation to a VC, the VC would tell me that he intended to call the Microsoft "venture capital liaison." This was a person who the VC's could call and ask if Microsoft was developing anything in that area of interest. They would also ask if Microsoft thought this new idea was a good idea.
I was shocked that Microsoft was in the position of being able to either support or nix any new technology that they wanted to. If they were working on something, they could easily prevent funding to that start-up. If it was an area they were interested in learning about they could encourage an investment to see the market reaction to the idea. They then could either develop their own version or buy the company. They were in the proverbial "catbird seat." As far as I know it continues to this day.
That is one reason why I started Jigsaw Health and NOT another software company. There is no Microsoft in the nutritional supplements business! Innovation can readily take place in this industry. I believe that Microsoft is the biggest impediment to further innovation in the software business. Innovation still happens ala Google, eBay, Salesforce.com but the numbers of companies are actually very small because the Beast of Redmond controls indirectly who gets funded and who does not.
I predict that MS will be sued again for anti-trust behavior and the day will come when they will either be forced to break up the company or they will do it voluntarily. Don't hold your breath though!
Technorati Tags:Microsoft,Software
I chuckled while reading this article about Microsoft and how essentially most of the entire software industry totally revolves around them. It is their "ecosystem."
As you know, I spent from around 1985 to 2001 in the software business. I lived through the growth of a tremendous industry and the creation of an incredible monopoly called Microsoft.
We had numerous times where we were helped by Microsoft and other times where it seemed that our little company could get crushed by them. They parlayed their incredible stroke of luck/genius of control of the operating system into a massive company controlling most anything they wanted to control.
I will say that many companies like ours benefited from the fact that there really was only a single operating system to develop for. If there were many competing operating systems it would have made it much more expensive to develop applications like ACT! and SalesLogix for numerous operating systems. This did make life simpler. But it also created a monster.
This article does a good job of painting a picture of just how dominant MS is. A recent experience with this was a few years ago when I was helping to raise venture money for a software company that I was involved with. I noticed something I had not known before. Every time I made a presentation to a VC, the VC would tell me that he intended to call the Microsoft "venture capital liaison." This was a person who the VC's could call and ask if Microsoft was developing anything in that area of interest. They would also ask if Microsoft thought this new idea was a good idea.
I was shocked that Microsoft was in the position of being able to either support or nix any new technology that they wanted to. If they were working on something, they could easily prevent funding to that start-up. If it was an area they were interested in learning about they could encourage an investment to see the market reaction to the idea. They then could either develop their own version or buy the company. They were in the proverbial "catbird seat." As far as I know it continues to this day.
That is one reason why I started Jigsaw Health and NOT another software company. There is no Microsoft in the nutritional supplements business! Innovation can readily take place in this industry. I believe that Microsoft is the biggest impediment to further innovation in the software business. Innovation still happens ala Google, eBay, Salesforce.com but the numbers of companies are actually very small because the Beast of Redmond controls indirectly who gets funded and who does not.
I predict that MS will be sued again for anti-trust behavior and the day will come when they will either be forced to break up the company or they will do it voluntarily. Don't hold your breath though!
Technorati Tags:Microsoft,Software