More Computer History Ramblings

I am constantly amazed that it isn't necessary good software that succeeds in capturing the market, but well marketed software. Several cases come to mind:

Back in 1978, CP-M was the best microcomputer operating system with the most users. MS-DOS (Microsoft DOS for the younger crowd) was slower, bigger, less features, and generally shunned by most users. So why is CP-M unknown now and Microsoft the "king" of software? Blame IBM. When microcomputers started appearing, IBM said that they would never catch on. (You may have heard the quote in the 50s by the head of IBM saying that there will only be a few hundred computers ever sold - must be the same guy who said that there will ever be a market for microcomputers.) When IBM saw that they were wrong, they quickly came up with the IBM PC. (Again, for the young folk, the IBM PC wasn't the first PC. It sure wasn't the best PC. Its architecture was really poor. It was put out in a hurry. But it was made by IBM and was well marketed. So it survived, the rest - Osborne, TRS 80, Commodore 64, Kaypro - did not. IBM didn't have the time to come up with an operating system, so they negotiated a "deal" with a young nerd named Bill Gates. They could have gone with CP-M but they got a better deal from Bill. Although I don't care for Microsoft, or any of their products, I will say that Bill Gates knows how to market.

For a word processor, Microsoft Word started as one of the worst word processors. There were several much better than Word, including WordPerfect, XYWrite, and others I can't remember. IBM had a pretty good one that I used for a while. But each one disappeared as the Microsoft Marketing Machine pushed its product harder and harder. WordPerfect held on to the Number 1 slot though, until Windows came out. For some reason, WordPerfect didn't think that it was necessary to have a Windows product. So they were left in the dust by the Windows version of Word. Then Novell bought WordPerfect and didn't know what to do with it. That finished WordPerfect as a contender in the word processing market. Corel later bought the product and still sells and supports it. I still prefer it. It is a lot easier to use. But I use Word too because "everyone uses it".

Likewise, Excel was a bit player in the spreadsheet market. They weren't first. Visicalc was. They weren't the best. They were one of the worst. But marketing wins. For many years, Lotus 123 was the best and premier spreadsheet. But they kept the price high and didn't have any student option. Microsoft almost gave away the Office suite to students. So the students bought Office and became the next business leaders and pulled Office into businesses.

Powerpoint, on the other hand, has been a great product for a long time. It really started as the number 1 presentation product and no one has even gotten close to competing with it.