XBOX KINECT: WEEK 2 - Strategic Planning & Ethics & Social Responsibility

Monday, September 13, 2010

WEEK 2 - Strategic Planning & Ethics & Social Responsibility

    Microsoft decided instead of only focusing on operating systems and computer systems that the company will expand to other business ideas in the gaming industry. Microsoft started making plans for entry into the video game world with its Xbox. But that did not stop them there; it allowed then to continue to make the Xbox Live for Xbox 360 as well as the new Xbox Kinect even though it was very costly. In order to create competitive advantage in the gaming industry, Microsoft allowed to differentiate the products from the competitors. After coming in second place to PlayStation 2 in units sold, Microsoft wanted to enhance the Xbox. The new system doubled the bandwidth and added eight times the memory of the original Xbox. In addition, its CPU had ten times the processing power of the Xbox. With these new advancements such as graphics and playing power attracted new customers. Under the approach to Porter’s four competitive strategies for the Xbox; was labeled under focus in the video game industry because it only dealing with one section of the technological world. Microsoft advantages are that it offers a specialized product with various features making it stand out from the competition. One example is the Xbox Live and now recently Xbox Kinect.

    Microsoft SWOT that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats has encountered many throughout each. Some strengths of Microsoft are its name recognition and its rapid product development. Such of the names are Word, Excel and several others which are used widely throughout the business community. Microsoft is also known for releasing new products in hardware as well. Microsoft weaknesses are that it did not recognize the growth opportunities of the internet; where sadly Google was able to get a grasp in the search engine. Microsoft opportunities are the expanding market in the video game industry by creating items such as Xbox 360, Live and newest Xbox Kinect. However Microsoft threats are the numerous court battles with other entities regarding antitrust and software developer lawsuits.
    Microsoft main goal is to protect all products. Our objectives are to increase monitoring and training of the local counsel who have powers of attorney for the programs to define responsibilities and accountabilities. Another objective is to prevent individuals or organizations from claiming to represent Microsoft. We want to reach out to many groups around the world and spread the program and ideas of Microsoft and the many capabilities it offer to everyone.

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WEEK 1- BRIEF HISTORY

Microsoft was created and established by a Harvard college dropout called Bill Gates. Gates was born on October 28, 1955 to a family that was successful in business. He was always excelling in math and science, where he was soon enrolled in Lakeside Prep School. In 1968 he was introduced to computers and there they allowed several students to use computers. His buddy Paul Allen and a handful of others quickly looked into the computers, and eventually started skipping classes where they would stay in the computer rooms to write, read programs and find out exactly how these machines worked. They soon learned to hack the system, and altered and crashed valuable files until they were banned from the computer. Later Bill and his friends were actually hired by the computer company to find bugs and explore weaknesses in the system. Instead of paying the boys they were awarded unlimited computer time. However that same company went out of business in 1970. They were soon hired by Information Sciences Inc. to write a program for payroll.
In the fall of 1973, Gates left for Harvard University. He enrolled as a prelaw student, but spent most of his time in the campus computer center. He stayed in touch with Paul Allen and they continued to talk about future projects and having their very own business. Allen moved to Boston to be closer to Gates. One year later, Paul Allen saw the first microcomputer on the cover of a magazine and showed the magazine to Gates. Gates then arranged for a meeting with the Altair manufacturers. He had called them to let them know he had a program written for them. After the appointment was made, Gates and Allen stayed up for nights, finalizing the program. Everyone was impressed and Gates sold the program. Within a year, Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.
The company experienced rough first years, but eventually was able to license MS-DOS to IBM. Microsoft continued writing software, for businesses as well as the consumer market. In 1986, the company went public, and Gates became a 31-year old billionaire. The next year, the first version of Windows was introduced, and by 1993 a million copies per month were being sold.