Fifteen years ago this week, Bill Gates stood before a crowd to launch what was to be one of Microsoft’s most successful products ever, Windows 95. Their $300 million advertising campaign included lighting up the Empire State Building in Windows colors and treating Londoners to free newspapers, resulting in customers waiting in lines for hours to get a copy of the latest and greatest in personal computer operating systems.
Looking back, the Windows 95 platform seems elementary, obsolete, graphically outdated, and even ugly by today’s standards. However, at the time the operating system far surpassed its competition in technological stability and capabilities. Many features we now expect in recent versions of Windows, such as the start menu and taskbar, were introduced with the debut of Windows 95. It became the personal computing norm, with over 70% of the computer-using world operating on it just two years after its debut.
But in the fifteen years since the Windows 95 debut milestone was set, skeptics and believers alike wonder if Microsoft has peaked and if their glory days are now in the past.
In comparison, more recent models of Windows have come equipped with greater capabilities, more user-friendly interfaces, and advanced graphics. And the revered Windows 7 has been reported to be selling at a much faster rate than Windows 95 did initially, taking into account the size of the current PC market versus the 1995 market. Would Microsoft’s most recent operating systems have succeeded without Windows 95 breaking through the personal computing barrier?
With new computer devices (like netbooks and iPads) and advanced applications infiltrating their turf, Microsoft’s ability to sustain their share in the market is questionable. Industry specialists suggest further innovations and enhancements are necessary in order for Microsoft Windows to outpace the web world. And as users of older Windows operating systems continue to make the move to Windows 7, they expect to continue reigning over the PC world.
Are your business’ computers still operating on older versions of Windows? Now is the time to make the switch to Windows 7. Windows 7 upgrades are fast, easy, and come with loads of capabilities and applications previous versions don’t have. Worried about the financial cost? Think about the time you will be saving hassling with outdated versions of Windows, time that could be spent dealing with customers and making a profit.
Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20014543-56.html?tag=topTechContentWrap;mostDisStories
