In 1975 a little company was formed that would one day become a juggernaut for the multimedia age. Microsoft in its first year had three employees: Paul Allen, Bill Gates, and Ric Weiland. Allen and Gates started the company after making its first project MICROSOFT BASIC for the MITS Altair 8800. MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) used BASIC as its operating system and by the end of the year the company made $16,005. Roughly 30 years later Microsoft’s revenue had become $36.84 billion with a staff of 57,086. Bill Gates once said, "Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes." Which sounds good but when you look at the numbers it would seem that Microsoft tends to walk the line of a monopoly for operating systems. And for the most part it would look like it succeeded in controlling the market. The computer savvy person may have heard of Linux, an operating system that controls around 5% of the market. But this software is a free and open source, meaning that its corporate structure will never rival Microsoft. Another “competitor” for Microsoft is Apple Inc.
Microsoft and Apple's competitive relationship is interesting due to the fact that even Apple doesn’t consider its business marketing towards PC users. This is evident to its “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” marketing. What this means for gamers is that you’ll have to turn to Microsoft for your gaming needs since the history of gaming shows that the PC tends to release titles first before the product ends up on a Mac.
Microsoft and Apple's competitive relationship is interesting due to the fact that even Apple doesn’t consider its business marketing towards PC users. This is evident to its “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” marketing. What this means for gamers is that you’ll have to turn to Microsoft for your gaming needs since the history of gaming shows that the PC tends to release titles first before the product ends up on a Mac.
Microsoft is a publicly traded corporation lead by a Board of Directors. These nine men and woman consist of: Steven Ballmer, Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, Maria Klawe, David Marquardt, Charles Noski and Helmut Panke. These directors oversee sixteen other officers in charge of various committees; some of which deal with software architecture and others with sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions. This just goes to show how Microsoft extends around the world.
Some of these members have an interesting history. For instant Reed Hastings is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Netflix, Inc. This appointment was in 2007 and even though the service doesn’t use videogames as a product the consumer can still find synergy between the two companies. A big thing about Netflix is its ability to stream media. Netflix streaming has become so big that a study has found that 1/5 of broadband customers use the Netflix instant video service. Microsoft Silverlight is the program used by Netflix in order for its customers to watch streaming movies and television shows. This may not be a problem except for PC users who operate on a program like Linux. It turns out Netflix doesn’t have a Linux compatible player; meaning that the small fraction of people who use Linux are again alienated.
Besides Netflix Microsoft has its hand in the pockets of at least one major banking company. Charles Noski is the Vice Chairman of Bank of America Corporation. This relationship is troubling since in 2006 Microsoft was voted to be a company at the bottom of the list of trusted electronics brands. This is odd considering that its operation systems account for over 80% of the market. Combining a company that owns the market that is not trusted with ties to one of the biggest banks in the United States screams bad news. It might not be too long before we are all hailing out Microsoft overlords.
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