150 Inverting the Paradox of Excellence
6.2.8.1.3 Microsoft Internet Explorer
Microsoft initially ignored the Internet like any other large incumbent facing a radically new tech-
nology. But the rapid increase in the number of web users and the media attention surrounding
Netscape’s success underscored the growing importance of the WWW. The Internet represented
a new revolution in personal computing. The browser was a sort of OS by itself, while sufciently
powerful servers with rich content and numerous applications threatened to render traditional appli-
cation obsolete. This was a direct threat to Microsoft’s dominance in the market of PC OSs and
software applications. In the prior 15 years, the explosion of PC sales and Microsoft’s super ...