Some claim Microsoft is … creating an unfair playing field for those who don’t have access to the proprietary operating system. The question becomes: Will Microsoft do it again in the online world?
Predictor: Horowitz, Ed
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, managing editor John Batelle interviews Frank Biondi CEO of Viacom Inc., and Ed Horowitz, head of Viacom Interactive Media. In the 1980s, the two were executives trying to establish a little company called Home Box Office. In the ’90s, they were working to bring Viacom into a new media age. Batelle writes: ”Late last fall, when asked if he had seen prototypes of the Microsoft Network – which Bill Gates had been rumored to be showing to select industry executives as a means of inviting them into the launch phase of the service – Horowitz had an immediate answer. ‘I said to Bill, “I like your vision, but there’s only one problem. Microsoft owns it.”‘ What bothers Horowitz, though certainly not enough to ignore the business opportunity that the Microsoft Network offers, is Microsoft’s stated intent to develop its own content on its proprietary network. It’s the same problem vexing software companies like WordPerfect or Lotus: Microsoft makes the operating system (Windows), and it makes the applications (Word, Excel). Some claim Microsoft is leveraging the two, creating an unfair playing field for those who don’t have access to the proprietary operating system. The question becomes: Will Microsoft do it again in the online world? Horowitz hopes not, but is willing to compete if it turns out that way. ‘If I had my druthers, Microsoft’s (network) operating system would not be proprietary,’ he says. Regardless, he plans to do business with Bill and Co. ‘We do content better than they can.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Viacom Doesn’t Suck: How Viacom is Leveraging its Brand Strength to Create the First 21st Century (New) Media Company
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.04/viacom_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney