Chapter 32
Words:843Update:22/06/29 03:13:44
Microsoft's BASIC Interpreter did not make much money. In its first year, its income was only about 10,000 USD. At that time, only 1/10 of the consumers were willing to pay for Microsoft's BASIC Interpreter. Thanks to the sharing culture in Silicon Valley, 90% of the consumers got the program for free. That's why piracy did not start in China.
If you want to run a business for a long time, you must find a reasonable business model. That's why Bill Gates's famous letter to the computer enthusiast attacked the idea of sharing and free software. Software is labor and has intrinsic value and should be paid for. Bill Gates contributed a lot to the software's business model. If he did not invent the so-called licensed version of the business model, all the software developers would not be making money. As a software company that wants to make money and maximizes its revenue, it must let the software company try its best to distribute its products widely and collect licensing fees. The more users it has, the more marginal effect it will have.
Because the cost of the software you develop is fixed, I can sell it to 10,000 people after I make one copy. The cost will be lower. For example, when Microsoft signed the contract with MTS, the lawyer added a special clause. MTS must do its best to license and commercialize BASIC Interpreter. If not, the license holder will have a reason to terminate the contract. The competition in the PC market at that time was fierce, and MTS no longer had an advantage. After all, they only need to settle the supply chain. In the end, Microsoft decided to part ways with Feng Yu. The judge felt Feng Yu did not have the obligation to promote the source code, and Microsoft can sell its software to anyone they want. This is a victory for Microsoft and its profitable business model, and it started Microsoft's decades of glory. Although Microsoft is still in its early stages and does not make a lot of money from selling software, it is still considered Microsoft's first pot of gold. Compared to Microsoft's old rival, Apple, Microsoft does not have any advantages. Also, PC is still a high-end and niche product. Other than commercial companies, PC companies will use PC for serious business, like building stock models or doing financial analysis.
It wasn't until 1977 that the Appleii became popular. The Appleii was the world's first spreadsheet software. It allowed people who didn't know how to program to do financial simulation on the Appleii. This allowed the productivity of the PC to be unleashed. Compared to smartphones, the PC market was still in decline because of its high productivity. No matter how good a smartphone was, if you wanted to do PowerPoint or Excel, the PC would still be comfortable. Those who complained about the success were jealous. Look at how profitable the combination of hardware and software was. How could they let this opportunity slip away? This combination of software and hardware is something everyone believes in many years ago. That's why Microsoft did this to make money. Microsoft had become the country's productivity software by plugging in the Softcard to work on the road. This is a Softdrive, right? With this Softcard, Microsoft made 8 million USD in 1981. Microsoft is overjoyed. To put it bluntly, Apple created the hardware platform, and Microsoft was a developer of the hardware platform. That was why there was a rumor in Silicon Valley that Bill Gates worked for Steve Jobs more than 30 years ago. The reason why Microsoft was able to surpass Apple in the PC field and become the dominant player in the PC field was not because of Apple. Part of the credit was attributed to IBM, the largest computer manufacturer at that time. During the Apple era, IBM manufactured high-end business computers. In the beginning, IBM thought the PC was a low-end product, but as the PC became more and more prosperous, IBM began to realize the importance of the personal computing business to the company. The biggest problem was that they did not have enough time. To build a PC that could compete with Apple's products from scratch within a year, they had to be open-minded. That meant they had to outsource all the hardware and software that made up the PC. This was a bold move, and it was unprecedented in IBM's history.
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