abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system (OS) market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of OSs. Microsoft would also come to dominate the office suite market with Microsoft Office. The company has diversified in recent years into the video game industry with the Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360 as well as into the consumer electronics market with Zune and the Windows Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.
Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend the company used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws. Known for its interviewing process with obscure questions, various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business.
Strengths:
• Powerful and renowned brand name.
• Diversified product portfolio.
• Ranked among Fortune Top 50 (2010) with the revenue $58.437 billion.
• Revenue and profitability factor rising at a stable pace.
• A company that operates through regional subsidiaries that are set up in order to lessen the cultural differences.
• It operates in more than 60 countries.
• MSN being an online services provider and also a directory service.
• Microsoft rules the computer software industry for being at the top.
• Product development is rapid and innovation factor is high.
• Workforce is diverse, which encourages loyalty and hardwork without any discriminated approach.
• Flexible workforce that can work on project on seasonal or demand basis.
• Strong impact with product line of game (Xbox).
• The softwares and the OS (operating systems: windows) are widely accepted and used due to their user-friendliness, which has created a bond with the consumers and a critical factor to accept for businesspeople making it more standardized and cost effective.
• Windows operating systems have a market share of more than 85%.
Weaknesses:
• Dependent on hardware manufacturers to preinstall the MS OS.
• Level of sales is falling regarding the OS and server softwares.
• Insignificant presence regarding the wireless market.
• Organizational structure is not satisfactory regarding the 5 layer management and red-tapism.
• Failing to anticipate the internet and acting flexibly in the early years.
• Quite a few products regarding the internet applications.
• Products having single use and do not focus well on how it will work on upcoming products.
• Employee turnover.
Opportunities:
• Global touch using internet will be a lot cheaper to devise its applications, especially in the new markets.
• Mobile phone applications show a great potential regarding the future, as everything is going mobile, Microsoft should invest heavily on applications and consider the mobile market as a new advancement.
• Emerging markets in many countries show strong willingness of the consumers to buy Personal Computers.
Threats:
• Apple is a great threat with its hardware as well as Mac OS, which is threatening the Microsoft market domination.
• Linux being an open source is yet another major competitor that is threatening the position that MS has in the market especially the desktop market.
• Many manufacturers like Sun, IBM, Apple and Oracle are having their own prebundled applications on their hardware that is yet again reducing the market share of MS.
• PCs, cell phones, and many other entertainment oriented hardware devices do not require windows OS.
• Innovative mobile devices that are substituting the personal computers.
• The recent recession in the US slowed down the PC industry and its need decreased variably.
• Piracy of sofwares is a major issue that has and still threatens the revenue stream of many application developing firms.
• Technology life cycle is growing shorter by the passage of time, and innovation is playing a huge role in it as well.
• UNIX has unique operating abilities that Windows cannot handle (according to its users).
Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend the company used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws. Known for its interviewing process with obscure questions, various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business.
Strengths:
• Powerful and renowned brand name.
• Diversified product portfolio.
• Ranked among Fortune Top 50 (2010) with the revenue $58.437 billion.
• Revenue and profitability factor rising at a stable pace.
• A company that operates through regional subsidiaries that are set up in order to lessen the cultural differences.
• It operates in more than 60 countries.
• MSN being an online services provider and also a directory service.
• Microsoft rules the computer software industry for being at the top.
• Product development is rapid and innovation factor is high.
• Workforce is diverse, which encourages loyalty and hardwork without any discriminated approach.
• Flexible workforce that can work on project on seasonal or demand basis.
• Strong impact with product line of game (Xbox).
• The softwares and the OS (operating systems: windows) are widely accepted and used due to their user-friendliness, which has created a bond with the consumers and a critical factor to accept for businesspeople making it more standardized and cost effective.
• Windows operating systems have a market share of more than 85%.
Weaknesses:
• Dependent on hardware manufacturers to preinstall the MS OS.
• Level of sales is falling regarding the OS and server softwares.
• Insignificant presence regarding the wireless market.
• Organizational structure is not satisfactory regarding the 5 layer management and red-tapism.
• Failing to anticipate the internet and acting flexibly in the early years.
• Quite a few products regarding the internet applications.
• Products having single use and do not focus well on how it will work on upcoming products.
• Employee turnover.
Opportunities:
• Global touch using internet will be a lot cheaper to devise its applications, especially in the new markets.
• Mobile phone applications show a great potential regarding the future, as everything is going mobile, Microsoft should invest heavily on applications and consider the mobile market as a new advancement.
• Emerging markets in many countries show strong willingness of the consumers to buy Personal Computers.
Threats:
• Apple is a great threat with its hardware as well as Mac OS, which is threatening the Microsoft market domination.
• Linux being an open source is yet another major competitor that is threatening the position that MS has in the market especially the desktop market.
• Many manufacturers like Sun, IBM, Apple and Oracle are having their own prebundled applications on their hardware that is yet again reducing the market share of MS.
• PCs, cell phones, and many other entertainment oriented hardware devices do not require windows OS.
• Innovative mobile devices that are substituting the personal computers.
• The recent recession in the US slowed down the PC industry and its need decreased variably.
• Piracy of sofwares is a major issue that has and still threatens the revenue stream of many application developing firms.
• Technology life cycle is growing shorter by the passage of time, and innovation is playing a huge role in it as well.
• UNIX has unique operating abilities that Windows cannot handle (according to its users).