The best known example of these methods is how Microsoft has exploited the replacement of MS-DOS with Windows 3.0 and especially with Windows 95.
During the MS-DOS years, the only Microsoft software products that were successful were their software development tools, i.e. compilers and interpreters, and even those had strong competition, mainly from Borland. Those MS products addressed only a small market and they could not provide large revenues. The most successful software products for MS-DOS were from many other companies.
That changed abruptly with the transition to various Windows versions, when the Microsoft developers started to have a huge advantage over those from any other company, both by being able to use undocumented internal APIs provided by the MS operating systems and also by knowing in advance the future documented APIs, before they were revealed to competitors.
Thus in a few years MS Office has transitioned from an irrelevant product, much inferior to the competition, to the dominant suite of office programs, which has eliminated all competitors and which has become the main source of revenue for MS.
The best known example of these methods is how Microsoft has exploited the replacement of MS-DOS with Windows 3.0 and especially with Windows 95.
During the MS-DOS years, the only Microsoft software products that were successful were their software development tools, i.e. compilers and interpreters, and even those had strong competition, mainly from Borland. Those MS products addressed only a small market and they could not provide large revenues. The most successful software products for MS-DOS were from many other companies.
That changed abruptly with the transition to various Windows versions, when the Microsoft developers started to have a huge advantage over those from any other company, both by being able to use undocumented internal APIs provided by the MS operating systems and also by knowing in advance the future documented APIs, before they were revealed to competitors.
Thus in a few years MS Office has transitioned from an irrelevant product, much inferior to the competition, to the dominant suite of office programs, which has eliminated all competitors and which has become the main source of revenue for MS.