Microsoft – The Biggest Software Company in the World
Founded in 1975 by Harvard dropout Bill Gates and childhood friend Paul Allen, Microsoft is the world’s biggest software company. It makes desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, gaming consoles, mobile phones, office productivity software, and security products and services. Its headquarters are in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft’s software has heavily influenced the technological field since its early days.
The first major product was MS-DOS, an operating system for PCs that became dominant in the 1980s and ’90s. The company soon expanded to include other types of computer software. By the 1990s it was the leader in productivity software, such as word processing and spreadsheet programs, outdistancing longtime rivals like Lotus and WordPerfect. It also gained a reputation for its Internet Explorer Web browser, which it bundled with its Windows operating systems and aggressively promoted through incentives to computer makers and Internet service providers.
In the early 2000s, Microsoft faced legal challenges over its near-monopoly practices. The Justice Department charged that the company illegally used its dominance to drive out competitors, such as Netscape’s popular browser, and then drove the Internet Explorer into obsolescence through its incentive programs. Gates and other leaders were forced to modify certain corporate practices to reduce the company’s monopoly power. The company still faces occasional legal challenges, and it has had to pay hefty fines.
After the 1998 antitrust case, Gates retired as CEO in 2001 and turned over the company’s day-to-day operations to Steve Ballmer. He shifted the company’s focus toward devices and services, including Xbox gaming consoles and Microsoft 365 productivity software. He also began to expand the company’s presence in the global marketplace with products such as Surface tablets and immersive virtual reality hardware called HoloLens.
Microsoft is now one of the leading players in the cloud computing market, with its Azure platform. Its cloud-based software products, such as Dynamics 365 for customer relationship management, provide businesses with intelligent applications and tools for managing business operations. Its Azure public cloud holds the second largest share of the global market, behind Amazon Web Services.
The company also sells devices such as the Surface Pro notebook computers and tablet, Xbox gaming consoles, and the Lumia smartphone series of mobile phones. Its security products and services include antivirus software, the Azure Cloud cybersecurity platform, endpoint detection and response software, and identity solutions. In addition, it offers software that helps with data analysis and predictive analytics, as well as artificial intelligence tools and applications. The company also offers specialized software for industries such as health care and financial services, and provides tools to help organizations improve employee productivity.
