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Microsoft Interoffice Memorandum



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To: Debbie Dean, Stewart Kanzen, Gordon kanzan, Gordon Letwin, Scott McGregor, Leo Nikora, Leo Nikora, Steve Rowe, John Sabol, Tandy Trower, Greg Whitten

FROM: Steve Ballmer

DATE: December 10, 1994

SUBJECT: Systems Retreat Summary

cc: Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Jon Shirley

Attached for your information is a summary of our retreat held on December 1st and 2nd. Direct any questions you may have to me.

dgh

also: Scott Oki Jim Hams Adrian King Steve Snyder Chris Larson

DOS and GWB

Per System Money = units x $/unit - old advances + new advances

..

How do we make more per system money?

- More $/machine - More/copy revenue (extensions) - Home market - More units - More from IBM - Dumb Terminals

..

DRI Strong in special deals, IBM Austin, Motorola, Atari, AT&T $53MM in sales (larger than MS?)

Business MS_DOS MS wins XENIX MS wins Languages MS wins Windows - Multitasking DRI Ahead 8 bit

Net

We make money by selling one redirector/net card Goal: $2MM per year.

..

Key Businesses

BASIC and DOS non-IBM

BASIC and DOS IBM

Windows (problems keyboard, Topview, VDI, standalone?)

XENIX

MSX

Retail Languages

Goal

Deliver $55M in sales for next two years 60% pre-tax

..

IMPORTANT MARKET TRENDS '85

  • COMPATIBILITY WITH IBM


    • - H.P., T.I., DEC, SPERRY, TANDY, OTHERS - NOT WANG, WHO ELSE?

  • RETAIL DISTRIBUTION OPPURTUNITY GONE


    • - DEC, T.I., COLUMBIA DATA, ITT, ATT(?), MOST CLONES - NO NEW PLAYERS WILL GET IN

    + SPERRY, NCR, ITT, BURROUGHS, HONEYWELL, ATT(?), DG(?) - CDC, PRIME, DG(?), COMPAQ(?) - SEEQA, CORONA, COLUMBIA DATA, MOST MICRO CLONES CLONES

  • OS "EXTENSIONS" BATTLE


    • - NETWORK VS. A CAST OF THOUSANDS - WINDOWS VS. TOPVIEW VS. GEM VS. ?

  • MULTIUSER SYSTEMS
    • - NET AND XENIX/UNIX

  • DOS SHAKEOUT WILL CONTINUE AND GET WORSE


    • - COLUMBIA DATA, SEEQUA, CORONA(?), TELEVIDEO(?), NS, VECTOR, GRAPHIC, ETC

    (Lose Sperry only, lose Phillips bus)

    - SURVIVORS WILL MAKE MUCH SMALLER COMMITMENTS

    IMPORTANT MARKET TRENDS (MORE)

  • XENIX STARTUPS WILL GROW FOR 286 AND 386


    • - SPECTRA, ETC

  • VAR CHANNEL WILL GROW IN IMPORTANCE


    • - MULTIUSER APPS - NETWORK APPS

  • WILL THERE BE ANY NON-EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS FOR NON-INTEL CHIPS? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ZILOG AND NATIONAL


    • ..

    MS-DOS

    WINNERS IN '85

    COMPAQ 15,000 u/mo. Retail Only Solid (if anybody) T.I Retail/Direct Solid H.P Direct Solid DEC Direct Solid (?) WANG (?) Direct (?) ZENITH Direct Solid TANDY Direct Solid DATA GENERAL Direct/Retail Solid SPERRY Direct Solid AT&T Retail/Direct Solid BURROUGHS Direct Solid NCR Direct Solid 40,000 u/mo. BIll at 50,000 units/month total

    LOSERS IN '85

    TELEVIDEO (What will they do?) COLUMBIA DATA (Going nowhere) KAYPRO (Management) HONYWELL (DOA) DATAPOINT ( PRIME (DOA) SEEQUA XEROX MANY NO-NAMES

    MS-DOS ISSUES

  • BATTLE IS OVER FOR OS - WE WON


    • - WINDOWS VS. GEM - WE HAVE NOT WON

    - ISV PROGRAM IS KEY

  • MULTITASKING DOS


    • - SOLID SCHEDULE COMMITMENT NOW

  • NETWORKS


    • - XENIX IS BEST LEVERAGE

    xenix key to DOS | compat our only value-added at key to Net

  • BUNDLING IS BEST LEVERAGE


  • BUNDLING/PRICING


    • - CHARGE MUCH MORE FOR DOS - 2, 3.X - LESS FOR BASIC

    - BUNDLE DOS/BASIC/WINDOWS/NET (?)

    - STOP FAMILY PRICING, GET SEPERATE COMMITMENTS PER PRODUCT

    - ACCELERATE 1ST YEAR QUATERELY PAYMENTS OR 1 YEAR UP-FRONT

  • MAYBE WE SHOULD SKIP MT-DOS AND GO FOR DOS 5.0 (Multitasking in Windows)


    • - SCHEDULE IMPACT

    - GREAT PRICING OPPURTUNITY!! DOS, WIN

  • ROLL OVER FLAT FEES, WATCH INSTALLED BASE


    • XENIX

    WINNERS/LOSERS IN '85

  • TOO SOON TO CALL - LET'S PICK FROM ATTACHED LIST
  • 150,000 UNITS IN '85
  • KEY PAYERS


    • - ALTOS (+) 16,000 - AT&T (+) - SPERRY (+) - SPECTRA (?) - DURANGO (-) - NCR (+) - TANDY (+)

    SEE ATACHED LIST

    XENIX ISSUES

  • IF THIS IS A KEY REVENUE FOR MS, WHY ARE WE WORKING WITH AT&T


    • - OMFs

  • LANGUAGES ARE CRITICAL and late


    • - basic and cobol

    - DEBUGGING TOOLS (SOURCE LEVEL)

  • RETARGETABLE COMPILERS WILL HELP KILL OTHER PORTS OF UNIX


  • CHARACTER WINDOWS PRODUCTS MAY BE BETTER THAN MS-WIN STRATEGY:


    • TECHNOLOGY NOT THERE, 386 BETTER TIMING (IF I WAS DRI I WOULD ATTACK MS HERE!)

  • GRAPHICS MODE APPS MARKET UNCLEAR
    • - CHARACTER MODE BETTER SHORT TERM ('95 - '86) ?

  • XENIX NET IS KEY TO STANDARD FOR DOS TOO.


  • VERY FEW NON-COMPATBLE WILL EMERGE
    • - SEL ALL PACKAGED GOODS

  • TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING


    • .. PLANNED 80286 MACHINES

    OEM Model Announce Account Mode MS-DOS XENIX

    Full Exhibit

    https://techrights.org/o/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/px05002.pdf