Microsoft

First computing experience
In spring 1968, Lakeside decided to introduce its students to the world of computers. Although computers were then too large and expensive for the school to buy, it bought computer time on one owned by General Electric. The few thousand dollars earned through a fund raiser was considered enough to buy ample computer time. However, Lakeside had totally underestimated the pulling power that the computer would exert on its pupils.

A few of the Lakeside students, including Bill Gates, became completely fascinated with the computer. They spent day and night writing programmes and soaking up knowledge through computer literature. Classes were skipped, homework often remained undone and - worst of all - computer time soon ran out!

In autumn 1968, a company called Computer Center Corporation opened in Seattle offering computer time at reasonable rates. Lakeside School and Computer Center Corporation entered into an agreement allowing provision of computer time for Lakeside’s students. The young hackers soon started causing problems, making the system crash several times as well as breaking the security system. They were banned from using the system for some weeks.

In late 1968, Bill Gates, his friend Paul Allen and two others from Lakeside founded the Lakeside Programmers Group. Their aim was to apply their computer knowledge in the outside world. The opportunity arrived faster than expected. The Computer Center Corporation was having problems with weak security and a system which frequently crashed, resulting in loss of business. Having been impressed by the earlier roguish activities of the students with Lakeside’s computer time, the Computer Center Corporation hired them to expose weaknesses in its computer system. In return the Lakeside Programmers Group received unlimited computer time.

Bill Gates and his friends took this opportunity to pick the brains of the Computer Center Corporation’s employees for any new information and developments and it was during this time that Bill Gates and Paul Allen really began to acquire the skills and knowledge which, seven years later, led to the founding of Microsoft.

A bit of business 
In March 1970, the Lakeside Programmers Group had a setback and had to find a new way to get computer time when the Computer Center Corporation went out of business following financial problems. They got their break when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to develop a new programme. They received not only free computer time but also royalties if money was made from the group’s programmes. Bill Gates and Paul Allen then branched out on their own and formed a company called Traf-O-Data, producing a small computer to monitor traffic flow. This made them about $20,000. During their years at Lakeside, Bill Gates and Paul Allen continued to search for opportunities to profit from their computing skills. The opportunity came when defence contractor TRW experienced computer problems similar to those at the Computer Center Corporation. TRW offered Bill Gates and Paul Allen the job of fixing the bug-infested computer system. It was at this time that the two first considered forming their own software company.

On to basics
In autumn 1973, Bill Gates joined Harvard University. Undecided as to what to study, he took the standard freshman course. He did well but his heart wasn’t in it. Once again he immersed himself in the world of computers. During this time, Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed in contact, discussing ideas, projects and the possibility of opening a software business. 
In December 1974, Paul Allen was on his way to meet Bill Gates when he bought a magazine that had caught his eye. Popular Electronics pictured the Altair 8080 on its cover with the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." They both knew that the home computer market was about to take off and that this was their big chance. Someone had to make software for these new computers. 

Bill Gates called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair and told them that he and Paul Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair. They hadn’t actually written anything. Nor did they have an Altair! However, MITS were unaware of this and wanted a demonstration of their BASIC. Intensive work began to prepare the promised programme. Eight weeks later it was ready. Paul Allen flew to MITS to demonstrate and test their creation. Paul Allen had never touched an Altair before. If the Altair simulation he had designed on the school’s computer, or any of Bill Gates’s code was faulty, failure was highly likely. He entered the programme into the company’s Altair and the it immediately worked perfectly.

MITS struck a deal with Bill Gates and Paul Allen to buy the programme rights.

By now Bill Gates was convinced that the software market had been born. Within a year, he had left Harvard and in 1975 Microsoft was founded.

The browser war
But Bill Gates almost missed the opportunity provided by Internet. At one time, he even considered it to be merely a passing fad. However, once Microsoft had realised Internet’s potential, the company not only rapidly caught up but overtook its competitors. In 1995 Netscape Navigator was the leading –more or less standard – browser with a 90% market share. The only competition came from a few browsers under development such as Mosaic and Lynx. Microsoft licensed Mosaic as the basis of Internet Explorer 1.0 which was released with Microsoft Windows 95 Plus Pack, quickly followed by Internet Explorer 2.0. The race for supremacy had begun. Rapid release of new versions of Netscape and Explorer followed. Netscape was essentially a relatively small single product company. Microsoft had two distinct advantages: resources and a monopoly in the operating systems market. Internet Explorer was included in every copy of Microsoft Windows. The result was that using revenue from Windows, Microsoft Explorer was rapidly improved and was soon as good as Netscape Navigator. Users no longer found it necessary to install Netscape Navigator. Today Internet Explorer’s market share is estimated at 90%.

Microsoft is today’s world leader in software, services and internet technologies for personal and business computing. It employs over 56,000 people worldwide, has subsidiaries in about 90 countries. The company’s net revenue in 2003 was over $32 billion.

New software launch
In 2007, Microsoft Corporation CEO Steve Ballmer could hardly hold back his excitement at the launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System in New York and admitted that he was too keyed up to sit down. He was clearly enthusiastic and optimistic as he gave his projections for Vista sales. He anticipated that in the first three months, five times as many copies of Vista would be sold as Windows 95 in the same period following its launch, and expected to sell double the amount of Vista compared to Windows XP in that time.

Ballmer pointed out that it was 12 years since Microsoft had launched a new version of Windows and Office simultaneously and noted that significant changes had taken place since Windows and Office 95 were launched. Today, the PC with its access to mobility, communication and entertainment plays a major role in people’s lives. Both Vista and Office 2007 had been designed to take maximum advantage of this. Steve Ballmer made four basic points: Vista’s ease of use with a new Aero interface, the new ribbon and integrated search in Vista, the focus on security, with better parental control and anti-phishing features, the properties for maximising the use of digital entertainment, movies, games and photos and the provision of easy access and connection to multiple computers, other devices and to the Internet

Following the introduction, Steve Ballmer was joined by representatives of Dell, Intel, Toschiba, AMD and HP to answer questions fired at them by the several hundred reporters who had gathered at the enormous vaulted room in the Cipriani Restaurant. Many of the questions related to security and Ballmer gave his assurance that security had been given incredible importance and went on to mention BitLocker, a full disk encryption feature for data protection. The question of whether a date had been fixed for issue of the first service pack also came up and raised a laugh among those present. Steve Ballmer’s answer was an emphatic “No!” and noted that the intention was not to need one at all. We’ll see!

Location
Microsoft’s corporate office is at:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
USA
Tel: 425.882.8080 Fax: 425.936.7329
www.microsoft.com