Source: Cusumano, Michael A. and Richard W. Selby. Microsoft Secrets. New York: The Free Press, 1995, page 3; 2000 and 2005 Microsoft Annual Reports from Microsoft website: www.microsoft.com (March 2006).
*: these numbers were estimated using figures for R&D/Revenue and Revenue from Cusumano and Selby, p. 3.
**: The 2000 Annual Report says “nearly 40,000 employees”.
Operating Systems including Windows XP Professional and Home, Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition
$12,234
30.75
6
Server and Tools
Server products including server software licenses and client access licenses (CALs) for Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server®, Exchange Server
$9,885
24.84
16
Information Worker
Including Licensing of MS Office System products
$11,013
27.68
3
Microsoft Business Solutions
Business Management Software including software sales (larger portion of revenue) and services sales
$803
2.02
6
MSN
Personal Communications Services including e-mail and instant messaging, and online information offerings
$2,274
5.72
3
Mobile and Embedded Devices
Including Windows Mobile™ software, Windows Embedded operating systems, MapPoint ®, and Windows Automotive.
$337
0.85
36
Home and Entertainment
Video Games including Microsoft Xbox video game console system, PC games, the Home Products Division (HPD), and TV platform products for the interactive television industry
$3,242
8.15
13
TOTAL
All 7 segments
$39,788
100.01*
8
Source: 2005 Microsoft Annual Report
*: Numbers do not add to 100 due to rounding.
Table 12.3 Microsoft’s Important Product Introductions and Legal Events
Year
Product Released to Public or Important Legal Event
1975
BASIC for the Altair computer
1977
FORTRAN (and later COBOL and Pascal) for microcomputers with an 8080 microprocessor
1981
DOS 1.0 – the operating system for IBM’s first microcomputer
August 1982
Multiplan – Microsoft’s first spreadsheet software
November 1983
Microsoft Word
September 1985
Excel for the Macintosh, Microsoft’s newest spreadsheet software program
America On Line: A specific internet service provider.
API
Application Programming Interface: A set of definitions of the ways one piece of computer software communicates with another. It is a method of achieving abstraction, usually between lower-level (for example, an operating system) and higher-level (for example, an advanced application) software.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange: This early computer standard code is used for information interchange among data processing systems, data communications systems, and associated equipment. The ASCII character set contains 128 coded characters and consists of control characters and graphic characters.
BASIC
Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code: A high-level programming language designed in 1964. BASIC was designed to be an “easy-to-learn” programming language and thus became a commonly used programming language for microcomputers.
CP/M
Control Program for Microcomputer: The operating system for which Microsoft chose to its early languages. It became the industry standard with the early computers and was a leading competitor of DOS in the early 1980s.
DOS or MS-DOS
Disk Operating System: DOS is the first operating system that Microsoft created, based on the QDOS (Quick and Dirty DOS) bought from Seattle Computer Products. It was later referred to as MS-DOS.
DR-DOS
Digital Research DOS: A direct competitor of MS-DOS.
GUI
Graphical User Interface: method of displaying text and graphics on a computer screen using pictures and images formed by patterns of dots.
IAP
Internet Access Providers (or sometimes referred to as internet service providers): A firm that provides access to the internet. AOL is an internet service provider.
ICP
Internet Content Providers: Any firm or individual that provides content on the Internet. For example, any company or individual with a Web site.
Independent Software Vendors (or developers): Any firm, other than Microsoft, that develops software.
JVM
Java Virtual Machine: Java can be installed on any operating system and once installed can be used as a platform for software that is separate from Windows. All copies of Java include a JVM that translates byte code into instructions for the operating system.
OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturers
OS
Operating System
OS/2
The operating system that IBM worked on as a competitor of Windows.
