The Dynamics of Microsoft's Website Evolution: A Story of Business Strategy and Design Language
In the early 2000s, Microsoft was facing a daunting prospect - the Justice Department was eager to file a lawsuit that could have broken up the company. To avoid this outcome, Microsoft needed Apple to succeed as much as they did. By strengthening Apple's position in the market, Microsoft could argue against having a monopoly over the software market, considering that about 95% of all personal computers ran Windows at that time. This strategy also helped Microsoft escape a longstanding lawsuit from Apple over stealing the look and feel of the Macintosh operating system.
As a result of this agreement, Microsoft was released from a lawsuit, and they even made a substantial amount of money from their investment as Apple became profitable. In 2000, the judge overseeing the case ruled that Microsoft had to be broken up into two separate entities - one to make the operating system, and another to make other software like the internet browser. However, Microsoft fought this judgment by filing an appeal and making another argument on their website with a title titled "Microsoft urges court to dismiss government's breakup proposal." And again, they were successful.
In 2001, the Justice Department announced that they were no longer seeking to break up Microsoft. Instead, they decided to pursue a less serious antitrust penalty. As this legal battle came to an end, Microsoft's website quickly returned to normal, featuring news like the demise of Clippy and preorder availability of Windows XP. When that operating system actually launched, Microsoft's website was slightly remodeled to reflect the design language used in Windows XP.
Around the same time, Apple had been enjoying profitability for about three years and despite working closely with Microsoft in some areas, Apple had a very different way of doing business. Those differences could be seen by simply taking a look at each company's website. In 2001, Microsoft's homepage was very text-heavy with few photos and very little white space. It was clear they were trying to squeeze as much information on the page as possible. Compare that to Apple's site during the same period, which dedicated almost the entire homepage to just one product, the iPod. Rather than providing links to many news articles, products, and pages, Apple instead directed visitors' attention to just one thing - ensuring a clear message that anyone could understand in just seconds.
As we learned in my previous video, this approach to web design was pretty revolutionary at the time, but it quickly became the industry standard. Just take a look at how Microsoft's website changed by 2004, suddenly they were featuring less text links in favor of banner images with a clear message. This is when Microsoft began thinking of their homepage as a storefront rather than a sitemap with endless links. And that shift makes sense when you consider the company's focus on hardware during this time.
They created the Xbox in 2001, which became one of the best-selling consoles in the country. But their second major product, the Zune music player, wasn't as successful. It launched in 2007 and was featured on Microsoft's homepage, which was redesigned yet again with an even greater focus on banner images. But the Zune never caught on and was dominated by the iPod until it was discontinued in 2011 after just four years on the market.
It was during this period when Microsoft entered a number of markets, including smartphones and tablets, in addition to rebranding their logo, products, and operating systems. It was all centered around their new Metro design language that debuted on their smartphones, and you can see how this new style influenced their website. By 2012, Microsoft's homepage looked like a completely different place. It adopted a responsive design and prominently displayed hardware, like the Surface tabletor Windows Phone, which was a big change from the software-centric approach they took just a year earlier.
This change in web design coincided with Microsoft's changing business strategy, primarily driven by new hardware. They introduced the Kinect, Microsoft Band, Surface Book, and Microsoft Surface Hub all within four years. Many of which were featured on the company's homepage during their release. Now Microsoft has stuck to this responsive, modern website design for the past few years, and they'll likely continue using it for many years to come.
However, their focus may be shifting from the consumer market to the business and government markets. They've recently worked with Toyota, the US military, and 17 American intelligence agencies, providing various technology to improve and streamline their operations. So while Microsoft may not be experiencing much success in the consumer market, they are making a substantial profit from other companies and government agencies, which could become the main focus of Microsoft's business strategy, and homepage, going forward.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMicrosoft, like many big tech companies, hashad a history of ups, downs, and major transitions.And I think one of the best ways to understanda company’s history is through the lensof their website.I recently made a video called history ofApple’s website, and I realized that a lotof their history intertwines with Microsoft,especially in the early days.And that realization is what inspired me tomake this video pointing out those criticalmoments in Microsoft’s history, as representedby their website.This is Greg with Apple Explained, and I wantto thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.If you want to help decide which video topicsI cover, make sure you’re subscribed andpolls like this one will show up in your mobileactivity feed.Now let’s begin by discussing how Microsoftgot their big break in 1980, which had everythingto do with IBM.You see, by 1980, the personal computer marketwas dominated by three companies: Commodore,Tandy, and Apple.IBM dominated the mainframe market, and quicklyrecognized the importance of personal computers.They wanted to make a model of their own,but didn’t have the operating system necessaryto make it happen.That’s where Microsoft came in, they promisedIBM a disk operating system, or DOS for short,similar to what Apple had provided for theApple II in 1978.IBM accepted the offer and gave Microsofta contract to develop what would become IBMPC DOS, included in the 1981 IBM PersonalComputer.Now I say all of that not because it has anythingto do with Microsoft’s website, but becauseit kicked off a decade of legal battles withthe US government that would not only effectthe company’s website, but also the futureof Apple.You see, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commissioninvestigated Microsoft for possible collusionwith IBM to manipulate the software market.And although Microsoft eventually settledthe antitrust charges in 1994, the companycontinued to be heavily monitored by the JusticeDepartment for any signs of anticompetitivebehavior.And this is where Microsoft’s website comesin.But before talking about their site, I’mgoing to take the opportunity to mention mine,which is appleexplained.com.And although it isn’t full of content, itdoes have a very important purpose.It allowed me to buy the appleexplained.comdomain before anyone else, and therefore claima custom email address, info@appleexplained.com.And I was able to claim my domain name, buildmy website, and create a custom email addressall with the same service.And that’s Squarespace.I’ve been using Squarespace for over a yearnow after switching between other services,and I’m really happy with what they haveto offer.Squarespace had the highest number of websitetemplates to choose from and they’re alloptimized for mobile so I didn’t have todo any extra work for that.And when I wanted to sell a merch productI was able to add an e-commerce store to mysite without starting from scratch.Plus the payment processor was built in andI could print shipping labels straight fromSquarespace as well.When I say it’s an all-in-one platform,I really mean it.And you can get all this for cheaper thanyou might think, especially if you use thelink squarespace.com/appleexplained sinceyou’ll get 10% off your first purchase,you can find that link in the description.Their battle with the Justice Department reacheda fever pitch in 1998, when Microsoft wasfinally sued for abusing their power to suppresscompetition, particularly when it came totheir internet browser called Netscape, whichbecame so ubiquitous that it was even shippedas the default browser on Macintosh computers.But Microsoft refused to stand idly by whilethe Justice Department accused them of illegalmonopolistic practices.They actually used their website as a meansto defend themselves in the court of publicopinion.It began in 1998 with a relatively small sidebanner asking what visitors thought aboutthe lawsuit, but quickly adopted a more prominentposition in the center of the website, aswell as more suggestive messaging.No longer was Microsoft simply informing visitorswith the title “Microsoft and the DOJ,”they were now making an argument with thenew title, “Microsoft and the freedom toinnovate.”And as the case intensified in 1999, Microsoftbegan an all-out offensive against the JusticeDepartment’s accusations.And nowhere was this aggressive posture moreapparent than on their website, which wascompletely overhauled.The usual Microsoft software products andnews updates were replaced by informationabout something called the Freedom to InnovateNetwork.Which claimed to be a non-partisan, grassrootsnetwork of citizens and businesses who hada stake in the success of Microsoft.Now it’s questionable how much of a grassrootsmovement the Freedom to Innovate Network was,especially considering it was formed by Microsoftand advertised to the public through theirown website.But it was clear that the company was tryingto form a narrative that had a chance of influencingthe outcome of their legal case.But I should mention that this had been theirstrategy since before the Justice Departmentactually filed their lawsuit.Because back in 1997, Microsoft made a substantial150 million dollar investment in Apple.And although that surprised many, it actuallymade a lot of sense for both companies.Apple was guaranteed at least five more yearsof Microsoft Office development for the Mac,influence over the creation of Java, and accessto Microsofts patents.But perhaps the most important aspect of thedeal was ensuring that Microsoft had a vestedinterest in Apple’s success.Because as we already know, Microsoft haddeveloped a reputation of monopolizing thesoftware market by either forcing companiesout, or simply buying them out.But this wasn’t a sustainable business modelfor Microsoft, they knew the Justice Departmentwas eager to file a lawsuit which had thepotential of breaking up the company.Something they wanted to avoid at all costs.So Microsoft needed Apple to succeed as muchas Apple themselves.If not, it’d be very hard for Microsoftto argue against having a monopoly over thesoftware market, considering about 95% ofall personal computers ran Windows at thattime.But there were more benefits for the companythan simply strengthening their position ina potential legal battle with the JusticeDepartment.Microsoft was also released from a longstandinglawsuit from Apple over stealing the lookand feel of the Macintosh operating system,their Internet Explorer browser would shipas the default on every Mac, and they actuallymade a substantial amount of money from theirinvestment as Apple became profitable.Now in 2000, the judge overseeing the caseruled that Microsoft had to be broken up intotwo separate entities.One to make the operating system, and anotherto make other software like the internet browser.But as you can imagine, Microsoft fought thejudgment by filing an appeal and making anotherargument on their website with an articletitled “Microsoft urges court to dismissgovernment’s breakup proposal.”And again, they were successful.In 2001 the Justice Department announced thatthey were no longer seeking to break up Microsoft.Instead, they decided to pursue a less seriousantitrust penalty.Now as that legal battle came to an end, Microsoftswebsite quickly returned to normal.Featuring news like the demise of clippy andpreorder availability of Windows XP.And when that operating system actually launched,Microsoft’s website was slightly remodeledto reflect the design language used in WindowsXP.Now at this point Apple had been enjoyingprofitability for about three years and despiteworking closely with Microsoft in some areas,Apple had a very different way of doing business.And those differences could be seen by simplytaking a look at each company’s website.Back in 2001 Microsoft’s homepage was verytext heavy with few photos and very littlewhite space.It was clear they were trying to squeeze asmuch information on the page as possible.Compare that to Apple’s site during thesame period, which dedicated almost the entirehomepage to just one product, the iPod.Rather than providing links to as many newsarticles, products, and pages as possible,Apple instead directed visitors attentionto just one thing.Ensuring a clear message that anyone couldunderstand in just seconds.And as we learned in my previous video, thatapproach to web design was pretty revolutionaryat the time, but it quickly became the industrystandard.Just take a look at how Microsoft’s websitechanged by 2004, suddenly they were featuringless text links in favor of banner imageswith a clear message.This is when Microsoft began thinking of theirhomepage as a storefront rather than a sitemap with endless links.And that shift makes sense when you considerthe company’s focus on hardware during thistime.They created the Xbox in 2001 which becameone of the best selling consoles in the country.But their second major product, the Zune musicplayer, wasn’t as successful.It launched in 2007 and was featured on Microsoftshomepage, which was redesigned yet again withan even greater focus on banner images.But the Zune never caught on and was dominatedby the iPod until it was discontinued in 2011after just four years on the market.Now it was during this period when Microsoftentered a number of markets including smartphonesand tablets, in addition to rebranding oftheir logo, products, and operating systems.It was all centered around their new Metrodesign language that debuted on their smartphones,and you can see how this new style influencedtheir website.By 2012 Microsoft’s homepage looked likea completely different place.It adopted a responsive design and prominentlydisplayed hardware, like the Surface tabletor Windows Phone, which was a big change fromthe software-centric approach they took justa year earlier.And that change in web design coincided withMicrosoft’s changing business strategy,primarily driven by new hardware.They introduced the Kinect, Microsoft Band,Surface Book, and Microsoft Surface Hub allwithin four years.Many of which were featured on the company’shomepage during their release.Now Microsoft has stuck to this responsive,modern website design for the past few years,and they’ll likely continue using it formany years to come.But their focus may be shifting from the consumermarket to the business and government markets.They’ve recently worked with Toyota, theUS military, and 17 American intelligenceagencies, providing various technology toimprove and streamline their operations.So while Microsoft may not be experiencingmuch success in the consumer market, theyare making a substantial profit from othercompanies and government agencies, which couldbecome the main focus of Microsoft’s businessstrategy, and homepage, going forward.Alright guys thanks for watching and I’llsee you next time.\n"
