1994, Microsoft had a per-employee contribution to revenue of more than $300,000. This compares to per-employee revenue contributions of only $162,000 for a hardware company (Digital) ("Ahead," p. 9).
Its financial strength is not the only reason that Microsoft has attained the success it has, however. Its products have strong reputations, and in two key product areas--spreadsheets and word processing--the company has successfully gained the largest market share, knocking out competitors who were in the market before Microsoft entered ("Ahead," p. 9).
Microsoft's enviable market position does not mean that it is impregnable, however. While the company has successfully entered and even dominated some market areas, there are other product lines, such as personal finance software, where smaller companies have been able to gain a larger market share than the huge Mic
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