The Glitz Is Gone Browser Battle Overshadows Anniversary Of Windows 95
Don’t expect Jay Leno monologues, prime-time TV ads or flashy new colors on the Empire State Building. The one-year anniversary of Microsoft Corp.’s release of Windows 95 promises to be a much quieter, less glitzy affair.
Microsoft estimates that 40 million copies of the software, a revamping of the company’s popular operating system for personal computers, have been sold since its release in August 1995 amidst a $30 million publicity blitz.
That makes it the fastest-selling computer software product in history.
But as the hoopla over Windows 95 has faded, so has some of its importance as a fierce battle arises on another front of New-Age computing: the Internet. Microsoft, based in suburban Redmond, is taking on Netscape Communications Corp. of Mountainview, Calif., in the race to set a standard for “browsing” the World Wide Web.
Browser programs allow people to find, work with and display information from the Web. Netscape’s Navigator is used by about 80 percent of people who browse the Web. Microsoft’s Explorer is used by about 10 percent but is rapidly making inroads.
“The Internet almost immediately overshadowed Win 95 after it was shipped last year, with the browser being the most tangible product associated with the Internet,” said Dwight Davis, editor of the independent monthly newsletter Windows Watcher.
Both companies have released new versions of their products in the past two weeks.
Netscape and others believe the browser can eventually replace the operating system as the platform around which software developers and computer system designers fashion their products.
But while Microsoft says World Wide Web browsing just makes Windows 95 that much more attractive, the company has had to move fast to keep up with its Internet competitors.
“The incredible and rapid growth of the Internet is an amazing phenomenon that the whole company is being reorganized to handle,” said Jonathan Roberts, marketing director for Windows 95 and its big brother, Windows NT.
The need to get the latest browser software into the marketplace has Microsoft planning to rip open boxes of Windows 95 to update the preinstalled Explorer software.
Whether Microsoft succeeds in eventually eliminating the need for a stand-alone browser and secures the pre-eminence of its operating systems remains to be seen.
But it has deep pockets and a dominance of the PC business, that seems to always help it get its way.
“Microsoft isn’t an 800-pound gorilla, they’re like a whole colony of 800-pound gorillas,” said Frank Catalano, a computer industry analyst and consultant. “It’s been shown over and over again that you don’t knock off the dominant player by fighting them head on.”
On Friday, the day before the Windows 95 birthday, signs of growing pains for the Microsoft Explorer tainted the celebration. Reports that a flaw was found in the Web software helped push the company’s stock down $1.75 per share to $123.25 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, even though the company said it was making a repair available.