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Quote 155 of 521

Financial analysts have long recognized that Microsoft's profit really
comes from two sources. One is operating systems (Windows, in all its
varieties), and the other is the Office suite of programs. Everything
else--Flight Simulator, Slate, MSNBC, mice and keyboards--is
financially meaningless. What these two big categories have in common
is that individuals are not the significant customers. Operating
systems are sold mainly to computer companies such as Dell and Compaq,
which pass them pre-loaded to individual consumers. And the main
paying customers for Office are big corporations (or what the
high-tech world calls LORGs, for "large-size organizations"), which
may buy thousands of "seats" for their employees at hundreds of
dollars apiece. Product planning, therefore, is focused with admirable
clarity on those whose decisions really matter to Microsoft--the
information-technology manager at Chevron or the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, for example--rather than some writer with an idea about
how to make his colleagues happier with a program.

James Fallows, "Inside the Leviathan".
		   http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/02/002fallows2.htm

Tags: informationtechnologymanager admirableclarity msnbc sizeorganizations productplanning departmentofagriculture computercompanies financialanalysts usdepartment flightsimulator chevron slate mice keyboards operatingsystems compaq dell colleagues corporations consumers