Microsoft, Fortune 500, Fortune For the Future

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Microsoft is an American software corporation based in Redmond, Washington. They focus on the development, manufacture, licensing, support and sales of personal computers, their software, and general consumer electronics. Microsoft is most known for their software regarding the personal computer, its Microsoft Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, and Internet Explorer web browser. Microsoft also prominently produces some well known forms of hardware being the Xbox console gaming system, Microsoft phones, tablets and at one point the Zune mp3 players. It is currently one of the companies within Nasdaq, and is the world’s largest software maker in terms of revenues. They have also made a number of large corporate acquisitions most notably being the purchase of Skype Technologies and the recently purchased Nokia mobile phones.
When discussing Microsoft’s products, and its share of the market or what form of market competition it participates in is a bit hard. Microsoft is such a large corporation that its products reach into vastly different markets, and as such have varying forms of competition. For example both Microsoft’s Windows operating system for personal computers and its Xbox gaming console are in an oligopoly. Both these markets generally have three competitors, in the case of the operating systems, there is Windows, Apple’s Macintosh, and the community driven Linux. Now regarding the home console market in the current gaming generation resides Microsoft’s Xbox One, Sony’s Playstation 4, and Nintendo’s Wii U. Now it would seem as if both markets are exactly the same, just three competitors, well here is a fundamental difference. When purchasing a computer you pay for hardware, and whatever form of software it come...

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.... I would like to point out that roughly this time last year Microsoft learned a harsh lesson in advertising, and presentation, which has most definitely affected the demand of the Xbox One. At last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, a large convention showcasing new electronic products soon to be the market, Microsoft made fundamental mistake. They showcased the new console and all of its features in attempts to persuade customers to purchase the product later down the road; however one specific feature was not well received. This feature was titled “Always on DRM” meaning the Xbox One needed to be online at all times for the system to essentially work. If at any time within a twenty four hour period connectivity was lost all features of the Xbox would be turned off. This included all forms of games, physical or digital, movies, and all third party applications.

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