Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
I think Lotus and WordPerfect were just trying to survive, not trying to "stick it" to Gates.
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Maybe.
But when Gates personally lobbied them to support Windows they refused and put tbeir development efforts into much smaller installed bases.
WordPerfect, for example, created an exquisite version for NeXTStep which had near zero installed base vs the horde of PC Clones.
Lotus treated the Mac like a toy.
Others, like XYWRITE might credibly make the excuse they couldn't afford to support the new platform but damaged brand or not Lotus had the money and staff to port Windows. They just chose not to, probably because they wanted people to stick with DOS and move the Symphony instead of mixing and matching best in class apps.
Imagine a world where instead of prepackaged suites, people could simply mix and match WP, Lotus, and dBase, seamlessly.
They could on Macs but there was no Lotus or dbase. Plus it required new hareware and retraining.
Windows, however, was just a memory stick or two away.
By the time they backtracked it was too late.
Office was a thing.
Borland survived as long as they did because they did jump on Windows in good time. But then they blew it buying AshtonTate.
Lots of mistakes, some were misreads but most were betting on the wrong horse, grying to control the market. That rarely works. IBM failed, SUN failed, and Ballmer failed. (Though most of his really big mistakes were abandoning markets too soon.)
So far, Nadella is proving much better at surfing the market, which is why MS is resurgent.