Transitions: "Wintel,"
The Eclipse of Apple, and the End of the Cold War
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Emergence of the Wintel Duopoly
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Microsoft releases Windows OS (1990);
quickly becomes business computing standard
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Apple struggles with corporate
structure, business strategy
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The situation in 1995
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The Wintel duopoly controls over
85% of the PC market
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Apple remains innovative, but a
fringe company.
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Newton example
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Apple pioneers the "Personal Digital
Assistant"; The Newton (1993)
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Early models have poor
handwriting recognition; sales are poor
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Other PDA companies enter the market;
quickly controlled by cheaper, Wintel products
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Parallel History: The End of the
Cold War and the Waning of the Military-Industrial Complex
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The end of the Cold War (1989)
brings talk of the "Peace Dividend:" Defense downsizing occurs after 1990
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Traditional defense and aerospace
companies struggle to retool themselves: Ashes
of the Cold War
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In Silicon Valley:
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While Lockheed
and other defense industries in the valley go into decline..
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Electronics industries shift to
new commercial computing industry
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Other forces beside PC/Software
industry support the shift
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Large computer workstations challenge
supremacy of mainframe companies in business/science/industry
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Sun
Microsystems (1982)
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Stanford connection: company started
by Stanford students on the Stanford campus
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Silicon
Graphics (1982)
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Stanford connection: company started
by Stanford Computer Science Professor Jim
Clark
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Clark used technology developed
at Stanford and hired Stanford graduate students as first employees
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Large software companies, writing
for mainframes and smaller computers, challenge the same
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