Stan Beer
Sunday, 29 June 2008 18:46
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Back in 1995, Gates, however, knew that Microsoft had
some time up its sleeve. The Internet was a sunrise industry and the
technology was still not there yet. Connections were slow, expensive
and unreliable. Internet business models were still being formulated.
Until the Internet became the all consuming
computing platform, Microsoft could still milk the enormous profits
derived from its desktop software dominance, while doing its utmost to
forestall the emergence of the new online space. Microsoft could also
try to reinvent itself and develop its own Internet strategy.
The problem for Gates and Microsoft was that the desktop was their
playground not cyberspace. Ironically, Microsoft's biggest problem was
its desktop dominance. It made and still makes massive profits from
selling desktop operating systems and productivity software - two
things that the Internet will eventually make redundant as money
spinners.
Gates and Microsoft continued on their merry way raking in the profits
all the while knowing that it was a matter of time before a serious
Internet-based adversary arose. And as the end of the millenium
approached, the Microsoft killer arrived.
While Gates was probably not aware of the launch of Google on September
7 1998, nor of the work of Larry Page and Sergei Brin at Stanford that
preceded it. However, by the time the new millennium arrived Gates was
almost certainly in no doubt what Microsoft was up against.
Google was no Netscape and Gates knew it. Microsoft could not simply
buy lookalike technology and crush Google. There was no lookalike
technology - Page and Brin had developed the killer app. CONTINUED
