other than being rich and benevolent,
Bill has made various important contribution to the IT world,
- Open Platform: while everyone was saying MS is not a Open company,
it is important to note that MS has actually executed "Openness" very successfully
in a few important turn of the IT World.
a. IBM PC motherboard, MS DOS
b. MSDOS allowing any software to develop on
c. Windows allowing any software to develop on - MS Excel, the first graphic spreadsheet and the Office suite
- building the software business model
- Embrace and extend the Internet, quickly accept the Internet business model and beat Netscape at its own game
- Persistence (sometimes), IE beating Netscape, MSN beating ICQ
- Innovation is for a smaller niche market, how to make things for the mass is the most important name of the game
Apple never learns this with the Mac, but its coming back through iPod and iPhone.. we will see how that fights out
but without Bill this time
However, in the later part of his career,
there are few important things that MS cannot do, that's affecting its future perspect
- Innovation can change the world, MS's in ability to come up with a answer to Google actually shows that it never learns
how to working in the Internet world.. always coming 2nd.. - too slow to enter the Mobile market
- too slow to enter the Mobile email market
- too slow to adopt to software rental model
- business software market, product getting obscure and too many names, showing no focus
i'd say Bill's contribution are revolutionary, esp during the early part of the IT/Software industry
and the short coming of MS in the last 5-10 years are just the fact that the world has changed too fast
and the ability of the finance market to drive innovation beyond one company
and that it's not possible to be good at every facet of every industry..
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