How Did Microsoft Win The Market?

[QueenZ]

So let's go back in 90's when Apple was making it's first OS and Gates was copying it and calling it Windows System was a great OS but a few years later Microsoft made it's Windows 3.1 and users kind of liked it a lot.. and then came Windows 95 which users loved very much.. I don't know why but i guess because Apple didn't even have Mac OS 8 back then..

Now of course Mac OS X is way better than Windows except that there are more software and hardware support for Windows. But that can change of course.

Maybe you've got better story on why Microsoft Windows owns 90% marketplace today and Mac OS only 10%...

 

[kastenbrust]

So let's go back in 90's when Apple was making it's first OS and Gates was copying it and calling it Windows System was a great OS but a few years later Microsoft made it's Windows 3.1 and users kind of liked it a lot.. and then came Windows 95 which users loved very much.. I don't know why but i guess because Apple didn't even have Mac OS 8 back then..

Now of course Mac OS X is way better than Windows except that there are more software and hardware support for Windows. But that can change of course.

Maybe you've got better story on why Microsoft Windows owns 90% marketplace today and Mac OS only 10%...

Put simply because Microsoft allows its OS to be installed on any computer and Apple only allows Mac OS to be installed on Apple computers.

Apple computers are out of the price range of a lot of consumers also.

 

[Vogue Harper]

You've missed the obvious - Microsoft wrote the OS but did not tie it down to any particular hardware which allowed PC manufacturers to build their own machines, install Microsoft's OS onto it and sell it in a competitive market place to the end consumer.

Apple tied their OS to their own hardware. Even today, if you want to run OS X you have to go and buy an Apple computer - there are no third party manufacturers who are permitted to make machines which run OS X.

 

[QueenZ]

Oh and they also were having some problems back then.. They fired Steve Jobs and they needed a new OS.. It was a hard time for Apple..

System 7.6 was released on 1995 which is way too late.. Windows 95 was out by then.. So they were late..

 

[t0mat0]

THe historical articles at roughlydrafted.com do a decent job at explaining the why.

 

[kastenbrust]

Apple tied their OS to their own hardware. Even today, if you want to run OS X you have to go and buy an Apple computer - there are no third party manufacturers who are permitted to make machines which run OS X.

Thats disputed. There are no third party manufacturers who are licensed to make it, but companies like Psystar do anyway, theres an ongoing court case into this.

 

[QueenZ]

THe historical articles at roughlydrafted.com do a decent job at explaining the why.

There's nothing there about this topic..

 

[pdjudd]

There's nothing there about this topic..

Yes there is. You kind of have to dig back but there are entire series devoted to how Apple let their market slip to Microsoft. Here's at least one article but there are others. Dan's site is just really hard to navigate, but he links to his own past articles in newer stories that he posts.

Allowing Windows to run on tons of hardware was only one of the reasons unfortunately. Apple let a lot of its own operating technologies get really old allowing Windows to so a lot of catching up. Office moving off Mac for awhile also helped. Other factors amounted to Apple's cloning problems, and bad leadership (Jobs was not the CEO at the time).

 

[rhett7660]

Thats disputed. There are no third party manufacturers who are licensed to make it, but companies like Psystar do anyway, theres an ongoing court case into this.

I don't think that is disputed, you either can or can't. (of course that could all change with a decision from the judge ruling in their favor)

 

[notjustjay]

Windows was not based (directly) on the Mac OS. Their primary influence at the time came from other companies like Xerox and VisiCorp.

Edit: good reading at this link.
http://www.vectronicsappleworld.com/macintosh/licensing.html

 

[MacTraveller]

MS didn't win.

They are the hare.

Apple is the tortoise.

It's quite a distance to the finish line.

 

[QueenZ]

MS didn't win.

They are the hare.

Apple is the tortoise.

It's quite a distance to the finish line.

Where's the finish line? When Apple catches Microsoft?

 

[sharp65]

So let's go back in 90's when Apple was making it's first OS and Gates was copying it and calling it Windows System was a great OS but a few years later Microsoft made it's Windows 3.1 and users kind of liked it a lot.. and then came Windows 95 which users loved very much.. I don't know why but i guess because Apple didn't even have Mac OS 8 back then..

Now of course Mac OS X is way better than Windows except that there are more software and hardware support for Windows. But that can change of course.

Maybe you've got better story on why Microsoft Windows owns 90% marketplace today and Mac OS only 10%...

Which is completely subjective, obviously many people don't agree or the numbers would be different.

 

[MisterMe]

So let's go back in 90's when Apple was making it's first OS and Gates was copying it and calling it Windows System was a great OS but a few years later Microsoft made it's Windows 3.1 and users kind of liked it a lot.. and then came Windows 95 which users loved very much.. I don't know why but i guess because Apple didn't even have Mac OS 8 back then..

Now of course Mac OS X is way better than Windows except that there are more software and hardware support for Windows. But that can change of course.

Maybe you've got better story on why Microsoft Windows owns 90% marketplace today and Mac OS only 10%...

Your history is all messed-up. The first Apple OS was for the Apple I, a kit computer in 1976. The Apple ][ put Apple at the top of the market in 1977. Microsoft did not get into the OS market in a big way until it bought Q-DOS from Seattle Microsystems in 1981. It licensed Q-DOS to IBM as PC-DOS and sold its own version as MS-DOS.

The Macintosh was introduced in 1984. It was a low-cost follow-on to 1983's Apple Lisa.

The answer to your question is quite long and involved. There is, however, a short one. The short answer is that Microsoft leveraged relationships with numerous partners--first by entering into agreements and/or partnerships and then by betraying its partners. The highest profile example of this was Microsoft's relationship with IBM. However, IBM was neither the first nor was it the last to be double-crossed by Microsoft.

Your original question has been asked numerous times before on this and other forums. There are numerous websites and books devoted to this subject. Google will be of enormous benefit if you do your own research.

 

[stevo8]

Which is completely subjective, obviously many people don't agree or the numbers would be different.

I don't think sales tell that whole story though. There's more to it then that. I think that satifaction ratings with the OS tell more then sales. I know a lot of people who are VERY VERY unhappy with their pc and/or vista but don't switch for a few reasons. Their family has a pc and the parents have the buying control, scared that switching will take too much time to get use too, price, etc etc etc. Now if you could just run down to bestbuy and buy a cheap mac on sale for $499 with a 20" monitor and a color printer after rebates for $50 then I could see more of a preference but right now just because it's two seperate OS doesn't make it a direct comparison.

 

[notjustjay]

Which is completely subjective, obviously many people don't agree or the numbers would be different.

I think one could judge the OS's on technical merit, including things like the driver model, security model, file system, multitasking, kernel, etc. Arguably the Mac (which now has BSD underpinnings) wins in many of those categories too.

 

[No1451]

Agreed on the technical merits, but I would never use a Mac as my primary machine, mainly because I love me some gaming(thats about the only use my PC gets these days).

Web surfing, whatever, meh, the Mac does the trick. But they do FEEL expensive compared to other machines, even if they aren't in truth.

 

[DarrenSW]

The most important thing is Microsoft's restrictive business practices (subsequently shown to be illegal) - in essence, the deal was, 'You want to ship computers with our OS? Then you pay our OS charge for every computer you ship, whether or not it has our OS on it'. Consider that awhile - Dell were interested in the 'Star Trek' Mac OS project (see Wikipedia) until they realised they couldn't build their own Mac compatibles because they'd have to pay a fee to Apple and then to Microsoft as well . So game over.

 

[IJ Reilly]

The "processor tax" was one of Microsoft's more notorious anticompetitive tactics, but not the only one. Back when there were still competitors for DOS, they told some of their OEM customers that they could buy DOS from Microsoft only if they didn't also sell their competitor's OS. Nasty. Illegal.

 

[MisterMe]

The "processor tax" was one of Microsoft's more notorious anticompetitive tactics, but not the only one. ... Nasty. Illegal.

This thread is bringing back bad memories. Let's share:

• Remember "The job isn't done until Lotus doesn't run"?
• How about those false error messages that popped-up when users installed Windows over DR-DOS rather than MS-DOS?
• Who can forget the secret Windows APIs that gave Microsoft applications a performance advantage over the applications written by the competition?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

There are also a lot of PC fanboys. Some doofus at my school still thinks Vista is the greatest OS. He apparently loves BSoDs, buying more DDR3 memory, bigger HDDs, better graphics cards, and buying new mobo with cpu (He says Vista is better because he has a 5.0 rating and my Mac doesn't have a rating). I can load Leopard onto my now stolen iBook G4 without any problems whereas he has to upgrade his entire system and moan/groan about the problems along the way. This kind of ignorance is what many (not all) people at my school share.

 

[neiltc13]

There are also a lot of PC fanboys. Some doofus at my school still thinks Vista is the greatest OS. He apparently loves BSoDs, buying more DDR3 memory, bigger HDDs, better graphics cards, and buying new mobo with cpu (He says Vista is better because he has a 5.0 rating and my Mac doesn't have a rating). I can load Leopard onto my now stolen iBook G4 without any problems whereas he has to upgrade his entire system and moan/groan about the problems along the way. This kind of ignorance is what many (not all) people at my school share.

I won't disagree that your peer sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about, but it also sounds like you don't either.

For the most part, Microsoft won because their software was always better. It was easier to develop for, it's much less expensive, it has a better interface and it ran on better hardware.

If you want to upgrade an iMac, you can only deal with the RAM unless you have a good nerve for taking things apart. If you want a serious upgrade, you need to replace the whole unit. I don't think that's better than having the flexibility to add a cheap HDD or a better GPU. Hell, I wish my iMac had a far better GPU than the junk Apple put in there.

The attitude that only Windows is bloatware is complete nonsense. Why do I need a bunch of stupid gadget things running in the background on my machine? Why do I need a resource hogging backup application to do something which is very easy to do myself? Why do I need a 3D interface for my music?

 

[notjustjay]

I think there's points to be made on both sides. I grew up on Apple, switched to the PC, switched back to a Mac, and continue to use both on a daily basis.

Regarding speed and bloatware: a lot of Apple's newer stuff often feels slow. Pages, for example, was a pig on my previous 12" PowerBook. Sure, it looks beautiful, but it ran slowly. iDVD is another example of a program that seems to only just barely contain itself at the seams, it always feels like it's going to explode any second now. Viewing a series of JPEGs in a folder is excruciatingly slow using programs like Preview (compare to programs on the PC like ACDSee, which even on ancient-grade hardware viewed photos lightning-fast).

Regarding PC tinkering: that's not just the Windows folk. Linux folk love to download new drivers, build/install, reinstall, and so on. I have a friend who did this. He'd tell me how he spent his weekend reinstalling the OS on his box, or bought a new video card and spent half a day on the forums trying to figure out how to install the best drivers and resolving conflicts and so on. Always seemed to me like a colossal waste of time.

I used to enjoy building my own PC's, but I think I'm long past that now. These days I just want something that works, and I'm willing to pay extra for good quality.

 

[rhett7660]

I think there's points to be made on both sides. I grew up on Apple, switched to the PC, switched back to a Mac, and continue to use both on a daily basis.

Regarding speed and bloatware: a lot of Apple's newer stuff often feels slow. Pages, for example, was a pig on my previous 12" PowerBook. Sure, it looks beautiful, but it ran slowly. iDVD is another example of a program that seems to only just barely contain itself at the seams, it always feels like it's going to explode any second now. Viewing a series of JPEGs in a folder is excruciatingly slow using programs like Preview (compare to programs on the PC like ACDSee, which even on ancient-grade hardware viewed photos lightning-fast).

Regarding PC tinkering: that's not just the Windows folk. Linux folk love to download new drivers, build/install, reinstall, and so on. I have a friend who did this. He'd tell me how he spent his weekend reinstalling the OS on his box, or bought a new video card and spent half a day on the forums trying to figure out how to install the best drivers and resolving conflicts and so on. Always seemed to me like a colossal waste of time.

I used to enjoy building my own PC's, but I think I'm long past that now. These days I just want something that works, and I'm willing to pay extra for good quality.

That makes to of us.....

 

[QUiKSR20]

I think there's points to be made on both sides. I grew up on Apple, switched to the PC, switched back to a Mac, and continue to use both on a daily basis.

Regarding speed and bloatware: a lot of Apple's newer stuff often feels slow. Pages, for example, was a pig on my previous 12" PowerBook. Sure, it looks beautiful, but it ran slowly. iDVD is another example of a program that seems to only just barely contain itself at the seams, it always feels like it's going to explode any second now. Viewing a series of JPEGs in a folder is excruciatingly slow using programs like Preview (compare to programs on the PC like ACDSee, which even on ancient-grade hardware viewed photos lightning-fast).

Regarding PC tinkering: that's not just the Windows folk. Linux folk love to download new drivers, build/install, reinstall, and so on. I have a friend who did this. He'd tell me how he spent his weekend reinstalling the OS on his box, or bought a new video card and spent half a day on the forums trying to figure out how to install the best drivers and resolving conflicts and so on. Always seemed to me like a colossal waste of time.

I used to enjoy building my own PC's, but I think I'm long past that now. These days I just want something that works, and I'm willing to pay extra for good quality.

I always love to start these type of posts with first and foremost I love my Mac, So dont forget that while reading this.

Vista is not half as bad as people make it out to be, and Windows 7 seems its going to be pretty kick ass.

Microsoft is where it is because it plays in bigger fields than the MAC. Macs are awesome they make great looking computers but dont let the looks fool you. They do get a few things first from other company's as for dual video cards in laptops etc and they like to push the envelope on cool new consumer / prosumer technologies.

But when you start looking into the big picture, Servers, Data Centers, Big SQL Server Clusters, Huge VM Environments etc the Mac starts to look really small really fast.

Windows runs everything from Servers in Data Centers, To machinery in big factories to Hospitals etc etc.

As for on the Desktop, OSX is freakin awesome and beautiful. I feel more productive on my MAC but for Hardcore stuff the PC has alot more stuff you can do on it, Dont go by what you see in the stores from Dell & HP etc. Apple blows them away in the looks dept but those machines can still be powerful as hell..

Think of Apple like the Mercedes and Windows Machines like the Honda that does it just as good but without as much polish although Windows 7 is started to look pretty damn smooth.

As for if the people who like to tinker there is some serious DIY parts to build sick PC's that run on Windows or OSX86 :