Competitive Strategies

Consumer Strategy and Acquisition - Competitive Strategies
School of Business Management, NMIMS Deemed to-be University.

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Introduction:
In marketing, anticipating the moves of your competitors is challenging but essential for
maintaining a successful strategy. Todays marketing is heavily influenced by technology,
emerging communication platforms, and immediacy of information. Many new products are
launched each year . While some of these products pioneer new markets most are new brands
launched into the market with an existing competitive structure . For every new brand launched
there are often four to five firms who must defend their share of the market . Microsoft being one
such company has actively defended its turf for decades through constantly evolving new
strategies. Microsoft continues to be a clear market leader in the personal computer operating
system market (Microsoft Windows) as well as the desktop applications office suite (Microsoft
Office) and has undertaken a number of competitive strategies to maintain its market-leader
position. Also for its products like Bing (search engine), XBox(Gaming console) and Windows
Mobile(Mobile operating system), it has undertaken a number of competitive strategies in
continuous efforts to catch up with the market leader.

Objective of Study:

Analysing different competitive strategies used by Microsoft in its quest to remain a Market
Leader..

In this report we shall focus upon how Microsoft has survived over the years as a market leader
out thinking its competition, constantly innovating and sometimes resorting to arm twisting
various. Here we will study how microsoft has acquired new customers over the years and how it
has protected its market share by using different marketing strategies namely attack and defence .

Abstract:
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational software corporation headquartered in
Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of
products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul
Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. It
is also one of the world's most valuable companies.
Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to
dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s,
followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. The company's 1986 initial public
offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000
millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the
operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011,
Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.
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As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite
markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other
software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the
video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles, and the upcoming Xbox One
console), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows
Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market
for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer. By the end of
October 2012, Windows went ahead and launched their maiden tablet, Microsoft Surface with a
total sales of 1.5 billion Surface devices since its launch. In February, 2013 Microsoft Surface
Pro equipped with Windows 8 Pro.

Competitive Advantage and the Basis for Competing
Every company and every firm has competition. The competition may be direct or indirect, but
there is competition. The moment a firm begins to believe that it does not have competition is the
exact moment it becomes vulnerable to competition.

Concept Chart :

A concept chart or a concept map is a diagram that shows relationships between concepts. It is a
graphical tool that designers, engineers, technical writers, and others use to organize and
structure knowledge.
A concept map typically represents ideas and information as boxes or circles, which it connects
with labeled arrows in a downward-branching hierarchical structure. The relationship between
concepts can be articulated in linking phrases such as causes, requires, or contributes to.
One of the uses of concept maps that is growing at a fast rate is to capture the tacit knowledge
of experts. An important characteristic of concept maps is that the concepts are represented in a
hierarchical fashion with the most inclusive, most general concepts at the top of the map and the
more specific, less general concepts arranged hierarchically below. Another important
characteristic of concept maps is the inclusion of cross-links. These are relationships or links
between concepts in different segments or domains of the concept map. Cross-links help us see
how a concept in one domain of knowledge represented on the map is related to a concept in
another domain shown on the map. In the creation of new knowledge, cross-links often represent
creative leaps on the part of the knowledge producer.

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Here is a concept chart illustrating our understanding of the various competitive strategies
adopted by Microsoft in its product categories of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Bing,
XBox and Windows Mobile operating system :

<<Concept Chart here>>

From the above concept chart ,we can see clearly see that Microsoft continues to be a clear
market leader in the personal computer operating system market (Microsoft Windows) as well as
the desktop applications office suite ( Microsoft Office ) and has undertaken a number of
competitive strategies to maintain its market-leader position. Also for its products like Bing
(search engine), XBox(Gaming console) and Windows Mobile(Mobile operating system) , it has
undertaken a number of competitive strategies in continuous efforts to catch up with the market
leader. Each of its product from the above list makes use of one or many competitive strategies
in order to maintain its existing market leadership or increase its marketshare.

Competitive strategies:

Expanding total market demand:

When the total market expands, the dominant firm usually gains the most. Market leader can
expand the total demand of their products by developing new users, new uses and more usage of
the same product:

New Customers:

Theory:
Every product class has the potential to attract buyers who are unaware of the product or are
resisting it because of price or lack of certain features. A company can search for new users
among three groups : those who might use it but do not (market-penetration strategy), those who
have never used it (new-market segment strategy), or those who live elsewhere ( geographical-
expansion strategy ).

Application :

Geographical-expansion strategy :
Microsoft launched a low-cost starter edition of its Windows XP operating system 'XP Lite' in
Asia starting in October 2004 with lower-resolution graphics, fewer networking options and less
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capacity for multitasking. It is described as a "low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows
XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in developing countries."

New-market segment strategy :
Also, many later versions of Windows like Windows 7 Starter as well as Windows 7 Home
Basic Editions were created to expand the Windows product line to cater to the student fraternity
and also to those home users who had a lesser income.
These Home or Lite editions reached out the original Microsoft Windows and Microsoft
Office products to many first time student users as well as housewives as well as the SOHO
(Small office/home office) users. The feature differences in these editions were not much of an
issue to a typical Windows user.

More Usage:
Marketers can try to increase the amount, level, or frequency of consumption. They can
sometimes boost the amount through packaging or product redesign. Larger package sizes
increase the amount of product consumers use at one time.

Application:
Frequency of consumption : Microsoft typically brings in updated versions as well a completely
version for its Windows and Office product lineup. After launching Windows 98 in the year ,
Windows brought in Windows ME in the year 2000 and then later Windows XP in the year
2001. Later on , Windows refreshed its line up with the launches of Windows Vista in 2007 and
then Windows 7 in 2009 and now finally Windows 8 is available in the market.
Same has been the case with its Office product lineup in the subsequent launches of Office 2000,
Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010 and now Office 2013 after its initial launch of
its popular office suite Office 97.

Also, in terms of providing upgrades to its products, Microsoft has provided constant minor
updates to existing Windows version in the forms of Service Packs (SP) - like Service Pack 1 ,
Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

Additional Opportunities to use a product :
One of the approaches to to increase frequency of consumption is to identify the additional
opportunities of using an existing product with some minor product upgrades.

Application:
Initially , when Outlook was a email client incorporated in Office 97, most of the people were
averse to using Outlook. Later on, with upgrades to Outlook versions, it was not only a email
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communicator client but also started being used as a calendar, meeting organiser, chat engine and
organisation form displayer. Today, a vast majority of the corporate mails are configured on
Outlook.

Protecting Market Share

Proactive Marketing
When Windows 8 launched, Microsoft was regularly criticized for not having enough good apps
in its store. Events like this, the company surely also hopes, will help accelerate the growth of the
Windows 8 ecosystem
In October 2012, Microsoft announced that it would hold Wowzapp 2012, a free global
hackathon, in over 100 cities around the globe. The event ran from November 9th-11th.
Microsoft announced that it had managed to attract over 17,000 developers many of them
students who worked on their Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Windows Azure apps with
the help of mentors from Microsoft.
Wowzapp was mostly geared toward students, but was open to all developers who were
interested in building for the companys new platforms. Microsoft provided all participants with
the necessary tools to build their apps, including a free Windows Store registration code (this one
was only available to students, though) so they can easily submit their projects to the Windows 8
and Windows Phone 8 store (but the code still had to go through Microsofts regular approval
process).
Apart from this, the company has added six new developer payout markets like Afghanistan,
Iraq, Montenegro, Serbia, Timor-Leste, and Ukraine, who can submit apps to the Windows
Phone Store. This take the total count of countries to 191.

It has added mobile operator billing partners, that offers three times more earning per app to the
developers.

Microsoft has simplified the process of submitting apps. One can cancel their apps submissions,
enable rotating screenshots, and automatically re-size their screenshots and can review their app
prior to submission.

Defensive Marketing
Even when a dominant firm does not launch offensives, the market leader must not leave any
major flanks exposed. The aim of defensive strategy is to reduce the probability of attack, divert
attacks to less-threatened areas.

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Position Defense:
Theory:
Position defense involves occupying the most desirable market space in the minds of the
consumers, making the brand almost impregnable in this market space.

Application:
Microsoft has been constantly evolving and innovating in its core business activity to maintain
its position as a market leader in its core business. This process of innovation has been ingrained
into Microsofts culture from the start when they first developed DOS, which was followed by
Windows 95 and so on. Throughout the process of continually developing new operating
platforms they continually added new functionalities and simplified the process by which people
accessed their systems and the Internet itself.
The entire progression of their core business was done keeping in mind the current consumer
trends which were seen through extensive market research. Even though some of their products
fared miserably as compared to others, Microsoft was always quick in providing appropriate
fixes and service packs which can be seen in the case of Windows Vista. When Microsoft
realised that Vista debacle was affecting its reputation, they were quick to launch Windows 7 in
2009, just 2 years after the launch of Vista.

Also, another point to bring out is the fact that Microsoft provided support to its more popular
operating platforms as seen in the case of Windows XP which has been provided with an
extended life-cycle support system lasting till 2014.

It was during this era 2007 onwards which saw a rapid rise in smartphone and tablet experience
with each customer looking for individuality which was offered by such products. Although this
market was initially dominated by Android (Google) followed by iOS (Apple), Windows also
launched Windows Phone (WP) operating platform and has been continually improving its
market share in this segment also.

To further augment this transition Microsoft recently launched a new operating platform which is
aimed to provide a seamless transition between the personal computer and tablet/smartphone
experience. Windows 8 was launched in late 2012 (November), and although some criticized it
to be a too big jump and a steeper learning curve, its a matter of fact that 60 million copies of
Windows 8 had been sold through January 2013, through upgrade proceeds and sale to OEMs.

To conclude, Microsofts strategy for position defence has been continuous innovation and
development of their platform such that it leads to customer delight each time. Each time they
bring out a product they ensure that they exceed customers expectations and deliver a good and
ease of use product which can really be used by consumers. This has made a Microsoft as a
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brand to look to in terms of operating systems and has made them almost impregnable in this
market.

Flank Defense:
Theory:
Flank Defense is one of the tactics of marketing where a market leader not only satisfies in
Position defense but also puts up an outpost to defend the weak front or to act as a counter
invasion base.
Application:
In 1995, Bill Gates the then CEO of Microsoft recognised that his monopoly of operating system
business was under threat from a new development in technology known as the Internet. Bill
Gates defined this as the most significant advancement since the introduction of PC by IBM in
1981.

Bill Gates recognized that development of competing internet browsers posed a serious threat to
the Windows operating system, as he explained it to his executives, that a market leader in this
domain would determine which network extensions would catch on and that they could they
move key APIs into client system to commoditize the underlying operating system.

Internet browsers pose a competitive threat to the Microsofts potential operating system
monopoly in two basic ways -
Firstly, one of the prime reason for Microsofts near dominance of the market share is because
of the fact that a large number of applications that work on Windows operating platform (and not
on other platforms). So, an internet browser which was essentially platform independent
combined with a new open source language Java could potentially revitalise the competition in
the market of operating systems.
Secondly, Microsoft recognised that since internet browsers were themselves platforms for
which several applications were being written, if one dominated the market it could efficiently
leverage the underlying operating system business, rendering it to be looked at like just a
commodity, taking their control away from over their own business.

The company which caused most concern to Microsoft in this aspect was Netscape. Their
network browser was dominant having captured 70% market share, which essentially gave them
immense leveraging power.
In order to compete with this rising power in Network space, Microsoft leveraged their
dominance in the operating system domain, termed illegal* and entered into agreements with
OEMs to forcefully package Internet Explorer their own internet browser pre-installed with
their Windows platform.
Microsoft also used its Windows operating system monopoly by requiring PC OEMs to agree,
as a condition to acquiring the Windows operating system, to adopt a uniform boot-up and
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desktop screens and software specified by Microsoft. This is the main reason why virtually
every new PC that comes with Windows operating system, no matter which OEM has built it,
presents user with the same screens and software specified by Microsoft.

*Microsoft was involved in a 1998 antitrust law case between United States vs. Microsoft
Corporation where Microsoft was accused of becoming a monopoly and engaging in abusive
practices

Preemptive Defense:

Theory:
One of the marketing strategies adopted by a market leading firm to defend its position in the
wake of attack by the market challenger. An aggressive defense strategy in which, the market
leader attacks the challenger before it attacks.

Application:
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer
hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor
officially cancelled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are
announced or predicted, never officially cancelled, but never intended to happen. The term also
generally applies to a product that is announced months or years before its release, and for which
public development details are lacking.
Microsoft has actually coined the word vaporware . It has often announced a product much
before its release (sometimes not even releasing it at all) to thwart the competitors. Microsoft
allegedly leveraged its Windows monopoly to crush DR-DOS by including intentionally
misleading product pre-announcements, vaporware and FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt)
announcements, exclusionary licensing, beta-test blacklists, building deliberate incompatibilities
into Windows to hinder it from running with DR-DOS, and trying to create the misperception
that DR- DOS couldnt work properly with Windows.Another classic example is the case of
Quick Basic 3 in 1988. Borland, one of Microsofts competitors had launched its product Turbo
Basic package. Microsoft, in order to hinder Borlands sales pre announced their product Quick
Basic 3 and succeeded in the mission. Microsoft called it fair competition when they were served
an antitrust violation by Borland.

Counter offensive Defense:

Theory:
The counter-offensive defense is a retaliatory strategy. When a competitor attacks your business,
you strike back with your own attack. Counterattacks can take many forms. In a
counteroffensive, the leader can meet the attacker frontally or hit its flank or launch a pincer
movement. An effective counterattack is to invade the attackers main territory so that it will
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have to pull back to defend the territory.Another common form of counteroffensive is the
exercise of economic or political clout. The leader may try to crush a competitor by subsiding
lower prices for the vulnerable product with revenue from its more profitable products.

Application:
Microsoft office 2010 Product Key Corp unveiled some sort of revamped, Facebook-friendly
version of its free, online email service so as to reverse market share losses to Google Inc.s fast-
growing Gmail. The world's largest software package company renamed their Hotmail service
Outlook, giving it a well-defined new look, social network links, and new features for handling
the tide associated with junk and mass postal mail that swamps many customers. Hotmail was
still the actual world's largest online mail service, according to the most current figures available,
with 324 million users, or about 36 percent in the global market. But it is burning off customers
to Google's Gmail, the fastest-growing rival, which now has about 31 percent of the market.
Yahoo Mail is static along with about 32 percent. In a bid in order to recapture growth, Microsoft
office 2010 renamed the service Outlook, a name familiar to the majority of corporate workers
who work with Microsoft's Office email request, and spruced up the complete experience.
Relatively unobtrusive Office 2010 advertisements came in a column to the right of the screen
when thinking about folders. They did not appear whenever a message is open. Users can link up
using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ records, to see the most recent updates from
friends in addition to contacts. Online chat was obtainable via Facebook. The new mail services
also allowed easy use of Microsoft's Internet-based products, such as SkyDrive regarding storing
documents, Office Web Apps for working away from a PC, and eventually possessed Skype
video chat built in. Thus, Microsoft's renamed action served as a "counter-attack" strategy.

Mobile Defense:
Theory:
Here, the leader stretches its domain over new territories through market broadening and market
diversification. Market broadening shifts the companys focus from the current product to the
underlying generic need.

Application:
Known for Operating systems and Office softwares. Recast themselves as a complete solution
provider by diversifying into IT consulting, hardware, computer software and even video games.
On 11
th
July 2013, CEO Steve Ballmer spelled out the One Microsoft vision in a memo to
staff, which he says will focus on creating a family of devices and services for individuals and
businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the
activities they value most.
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He adds: This is a big undertaking. It touches nearly every piece of what we do and how we
work. It changes our organisational structure, the way we collaborate, how we allocate resources,
how we best empower our engineers and how we market.
As a result the company will be reorganised by function rather than product and will consist of:
marketing, business development and evangelism, advanced strategy and research, finance, HR,
legal, various engineering groups and COO - which includes field, support, commercial
operations and IT. The restructure means all parts of the company will contribute to core
products such as Windows, Office 365, Windows Phone, Xbox, Bing and Azure.
Marketing going forward will now reflect one company, with an integrated approach to both
Microsofts consumer and business customers meaning adverts are likely to be more brand than
product-led. The brand will reflect the business plan and also Microsofts employees values: to
be personal, valued, inspired and forward-looking, the memo continues.
Microsofts new vision is similar in both name and approach to Sonys, which announced its
One Sony strategy last year to better align its array of products and services around three core
divisions.

Contraction Defense:

Theory:
One of the defence strategies sometimes adopted by the market leader in wake of intense
competition . Market Leader sometimes recognises it cannot defend all of its territory. The best
course of action that is available to a market leader is planned contraction (also sometimes called
strategic withdrawal). Planned contraction means giving up weaker territories and reassigning
resources to stronger territories. It is a move to consolidate competitive strength strength in the
market and reassigning resources to stronger territories. It is a move to to consolidate
competitive strength in the market and concentrate mass at pivotal positions.

Application :
Zune was a brand of digital media products and services developed by Microsoft. Zune included
a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows PCs, a music
subscription service known as a 'Zune Music Pass', music and video streaming services for the
Xbox 360 game console via the Zune Software, music, TV and movie sales, and desktop sync
software for Windows Phone.
Microsoft ruined Zune with high price tag. With such a powerful machine, Microsoft decided to
challenge the position of iPod in high end product market. As a latest product, Zune was marked
with a price tag of $300. Consumer would choose to buy iPod which has enjoyed a good
reputation for years other than Zune, a strange product to them with this price tag.
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Microsoft moved too far on its way to challenge iPod in the beginning of the battle instead of
building a good image in the market. Every year, iPod would update its product which would
turn out to be popular. With such a high price tag, Zune lagged far behind in competitiveness
The Zune hardware players were discontinued in October 2011. In June 2012, Microsoft
announced plans to discontinue all "Zune" services; instead Microsoft will distribute its digital
media content and services under the Xbox Music and Xbox Video brands available on its line of
products including Windows 8 PCs and tablets, Xbox 360 game console, and Windows Phone
smartphones. The 'www.zune.net' domain now redirects to Xbox's website, but the software will
retain the Zune name. The Windows Phone App succeeded Zune Software as the desktop sync
service for Windows Phone 8, as part of Microsoft's discontinuation of the Zune brand..

Frontal Attack:

Theory:
In a pure frontal attack, the attacker matches its opponents product, advertising, price and
distribution. The principle of force says that the side with the greater resource wins. A modified
frontal attack such as cutting prices can work if the market leader doesnt attack and if the
competitor convinces the market, its products equal is equal to the leaders.
Google partnered with HTC to produce Nexus One in 2009, with Samsung to produce Nexus S ,
Galaxy Nexus, with LG to produce Nexus 4 using Android OS. Microsoft wanted to match this
association through co-branding and thus partnered with Nokia.

Partnership with Nokia (Co-branding):
Microsoft Bing would power-search across Nokia devices
Integration of Nokia Maps with Bing Maps
The first Nokia Windows phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710
integration of Nokia's Ovi store with the Windows Phone Store
Microsoft has promoted HTC's Windows Phone 8X as the flagship device for Windows Phone 8
during the 2012 holiday season, instead of the Nokia Lumia 920.

Hence, Microsoft tried to match the Android Operating System in terms of a typical Android
manufacturers features in terms of storage capacity and processor power. Also, in terms of
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reaching out to more consumers, it is leveraging upon Nokias retailer network to enhance its
distribution.

Flank Attack:

Theory:
Android mobiles consume more battery power. Microsoft built upon this competitor weakness.
The advantage Windows Phone 8 holds over Androids Jelly Bean is that phones that run on it
consume considerably less battery power. In general, Windows Phone provides enough juice to
last the user all day and sometimes into the next. This is largely due to the fact that it is easy to
close apps that are running in the background and the phones run on a dual-core processor
instead of quad-core processors that have to work twice as hard.

Application:
Apple Inc. launched highly successful iPads that were favourably received by the the consumers.
But one of the most devoid features in that product was the lack of a keyboard which was taken
into account by Microsoft when it launched Microsoft Surface tablets with keyboards coming
along with the Surface tablets.

Encirclement Attack:
Theory:
Attempts to capture a wide slice of territory by launching a grand offensive on several fronts.

Application:
The technology company has launched a comprehensive online, television and print campaign in
the US, taking aim at Googles handling of users personal information.
The Scroogled campaign has so far targeted Google Play, Gmail and Google Shopping in a
five-month crusade that shows no sign of slowing. The campaign accuses Google of, among
other things, scanning users emails for keywords that will determine relevant ads to place
alongside the messages. It also says it is sharing personal information that it gathers from people
who buy applications that will run on Googles android software, including names, email
addresses and the neighborhoods where users live.
It also claims that Google does not clearly warn users that this is happening.
The latest Scroogled ads, the third in the series, says: If you cant trust Googles app store,
maybe you shouldnt trust Google for anything. It then encourages users to try Microsofts own
search engine Bing.
Another ad assures consumers that Windows Phone Store does not share any personally
identifiable information with third-party app makers. Prominent tabs on the Scroogled website
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urge visitors to Set Bing as Homepage and Explore Windows Phone in a bid to encourage
users away from Google.
Microsofts statement following this latest wave of the Scroogled campaign says:
We dont have any future plans to share at this time, but we believe that its important to
educate the public about practices that are misleading and may harm consumers. This Dont Get
Scroogled effort is focused on educating consumers about Googles deceptive app store privacy
practices.
The Get the Facts section of the Scroogled website features research (commissioned by
Microsoft) into how concerned Americans are over privacy issues, as well as quotes from experts
and consumer protection groups on the issue.

Bings encirclement strategy:

Differentiation in image searches:
Bing incorporates image click data from Web and social signals into their search results. While,
Google search results for images do not take into account this kind of user interaction data,
relying solely on visual and text features. Bing follows a interactive marketing approach
Bing recognizes exact duplicates and near duplicate images, which allows them to be filtered out
of search results
Bing shows the user a full, high-quality image after the first click instead of having to click
through multiple pages to get the best quality image. Their algorithm prefers high-quality images
Bing on Facebook Graph Search:
When people want to search beyond Facebook, they see web search results from Bing with social
context and additional information such as Facebook pages
In May 2012, Microsoft added a social sidebar to Bing results that displays relevant Facebook
content for users who have elected to sign into Bing with their Facebook accounts. Later that
summer
Microsoft also added a way to search Facebook Photos directly through Bing
Some more features to beat Google:
Microsoft with the purchase of Farecast in 2008 brought some uniquely advanced technology to
search queries involving travel and buying. Farecast, a tool for comparing airfares, uses a
predictive algorithm to recommend when you should buy your airline ticket. People can use
advanced pricing tools from within Bing's search results
Microsoft brought smarts to hotel reservations, too. Bing travel results show you Hotel Deals
when you search for accommodations within a specific region. Bing calculates the historic price
of a room at a specific hotel, compares historic pricing with the current rate being offered, and
identifies whether the current price is a "deal" or not

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Bypass Attack:
Theory:
The bypass strategy enables attackers to bypass its chief competitors and diversify into unrelated
products or markets. The attacker is at the risk of diluting the core business and central operation
and venturing into areas where company has no business. It means that the attacker will diversify
into not only unrelated products but also unrelated areas.

Application: Microsoft entered into the gaming console market with XBox in 2000. Even though
people at that time thought that the console gaming was just a repackaging of PC games, XBox
with its excellent specs made them think otherwise. Microsoft entered into the market of sixth
generation(128 bits) gaming console competing directly with Playstation which had released
PlayStation 2 just 15 months back. The

Guerrilla attack:
Theory:
It consists of small intermittent attacks, conventional and unconventional, including selective
price cuts, intense promotional blitzes, and occasional legal action, to harass the opponent and
eventually secure a permanent footholds. A guerrilla campaign can be expensive, although less
so than a frontal, encirclement, or flank attack, but it typically must be backed by a stronger
attack to beat the opponent.

Application:

Also in the mid-1990s, Microsoft took a series of steps to punish IBM for promoting a
competing operating system and personal productivity application suite. At the time, in addition
to developing software in competition with Microsoft, IBM was also a major OEM, selling
personal computers. As such, IBM was a major customer of Microsofts. Microsoft retaliated
against IBM for developing competing software products by charging IBM discriminatorily high
license prices for Windows, delaying licensing negotiations with IBM for Windows 95, and
withholding technical support. Microsoft informed IBM executives that it would only stop
treating IBM less favorably than other OEMs when IBM ceased competing with Microsofts
software offerings. This resulted in $180 million in lost revenue for IBM, and other damages
IBM eventually brought suit against Microsoft and Microsoft settled the claim for $775 million.

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Conclusion:

*Talk briefly about the strategies - list down basically - talked about in the
entire project.
*And the conclude that all these strategies have made Windows n Office
products as Leaders in their product categories and Bing etc ..
Conclude.

In today's high technology world, standard battles are commonplace. We have seen how the
phenomenon of increasing returns is an important factor leading markets to lock into a given
technological standard. Failure to jumpstart an increasing returns mechanism can result in a
technology's being locked out. From the perspective of the sponsoring firm, the key strategic
issue is how to establish its technology as an industry standard and capture the substantial profits
that flow from ownership of that standard.

Microsoft is ready to move on from the Wintel era(the Windows and Intel
combination to overthrow IBM) which dominated the desktop and laptop.
Microsoft has been market leader in some segments and the market
challenger in others and it employed all the different strategy to both defend
its position and aggressively attack the market leader.
The mobile operating system market is dominated by Android and Microsoft
with its Windows 8 is trying to synchronise it across various devices - PC,
laptops, smartphones and thus gaining market share.
Microsoft is moving towards One Microsoft vision where it wants to
integrate into single strategy as one company not a collection of
divisional strategies.
Microsoft is the market leader in the PC operating system market and has
always tries and defended it successfully.

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References:
Strategies Used by Microsoft to Leverage its Monopoly Position in Operating Systems to
Internet Browser Markets - by Michael Bay and Patrick Scholten

Klein, B. (2001). The microsoft case: What can a dominant firm do to defend its market
position? The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(2), 45-62. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/212095962?accountid=32277

Baker, S. (1998). What every business should learn from microsoft. The Journal of Business
Strategy, 19(5), 36-41. Retrieved from

Klein, B. (2001). Did microsoft engage in anticompetitive exclusionary behavior? Antitrust
Bulletin, 46(1), 71-113. Retrieved from

Furse, M. (1998). United states vs. microsoft: Ill-considered antitrust. International Review of
Law, Computers & Technology,12(1), 99-120. Retrieved from

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Consumer Strategy and Acquisition - Competitive Strategies

School of Business Management, NMIMS Deemed to-be University.

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