In the Internet era, where the half-life of technology is no more than a few years, a company like Microsoft is competing not only with developers of competing products but also with companies feverishly working to make all of its product categories obsolete. The software giant lives every day with the terrifying reality that the New Economy has changed its competitive environment. Microsoft's entire business strategy has always been tightly chained to the personal computer. These technologies weren't around when the Justice Department filed its first briefs against Bill Gates' brainchild.
Most companies never clear that hurdle.
The marvel of Microsoft was never that Bill Gates' company achieved monopoly status following the strategy that propelled market acceptance of its first operating system. It was that Microsoft developed so many successful business strategies in succession, even as the life cycle of strategies across industries grew ever shorter. In an era when even wildly successful ventures quickly become hostages to their initial business model, Microsoft shed its strategy at least three times, morphing from an operating systems company to an applications company to an Internet browser company. Even so, its stepped-down success shows just how hard it is to retain market share commensurate with an initial innovative insight. It has a commanding presence but by no means a chokehold.