Finally - The $200 Billion Question

So, the Justice Department has the bigwigs at Microsoft acting like they're up for a part in a Disney movie, but that doesn't stop them from thinking business. The only other monopoly that we can compare Microsoft to is PC CAD software company Autodesk.

Allchin quoted an IDC report claiming that Microsoft's software has created a $200 billion business empire around it. That was just 2001, by the way. Autodesk's Windows, AutoCAD, was never that big, but it was as just as dominant, and around it orbited vendors and service providers in their own lucrative cosmos, just like they do around Microsoft.

As times got tough, Autodesk bought out third party software add-ons, or just added their features to the next version of AutoCAD. How else could they keep people buying the next greatest version?

Microsoft, in turn, has continued to add more functionality to Windows, and we all know what happened to the browser. Now, that functionality is audio and video playback. With Xbox, Microsoft has already encroached on the PC gaming business for its own gain.

Slowly, but surely, Microsoft has to eat away at the universe around it, and it appears that the next stage of evolution is going to see the consumer PC being replaced by the consumer electronics PC. It may not be such a big deal for Dell or Compaq, but Sony, NEC, Philips, and other consumer electronics giants may be set to make a killing if this all works out.

In the enterprise, Microsoft still has a long way to go, and it needs a lot more help if it is to establish itself in the server and networking areas. That pie is still too big for one company to handle all on its own, and Microsoft needs all the friends it can get.

PC gaming is dead; long live PC gaming.