1. Describe and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of
their distribution approach and make suggestions for
their future development
By Vinayak Nandikal

2.  Company introduction
 Microsoft Windows
 Product description
 Distribution channels
• Individual sales W&S
• Included with the PC W&S
 Recommendations for future developments
 Live Search
 Service description
 Distribution channels
 Weaknesses and Strenghts
 Recommendations for future developments
 Conclusion
Table of contents

3. Created in 1975 by Paul ALLEN & Bill GATES
In 2008 it is 91,259 employees in 105 countries
Two Main products:
Other products: MSN, Encarta, PC accesories, Xbox

4. Microsoft Windows
An Operating System(Main software of a PC)
Price of Microsoft Windows in the USA:
Distributed individually or included with the
PC

5. Microsoft Office 2007

6. Individually distributed

You can buy it online at Microsoft stores or
any of their online distributors

You can buy it at a physical store(computer
store, supermarket)

You can use it at different places without
buying it for e.g: universities

You can receive it from a Microsoft
donation

7. Weaknesses

Piracy:
244 copies sold in two weeks
in China

A cost:
Low demand but have to provide this solution
Donation is not a short term strategy

8. Strenghts
Piracy:
“let them pirate software developed by Microsoft -that increases the
overall number of Microsoft software users and some of them may
eventually convert into paying customers.”
You get some market shares rather than profit
You can even beat your competitor(Linux requires more discs in
some cases)
A better image;
A Microsoft dependency

9. Included with the PC
Distribution channels are then the same as the
ones of a PC
Bundling:
from http://www.investorwords.com/620/bundling.html
« The practice of joining related products
together for the purpose of selling them as a
single unit. »
Illegal in most of the countries

10. Weaknesses

Under the threat of a huge trial (March 2004,
the EU ordered Microsoft to pay €497 million)

Introduction of new competitors & low cost
products:

Less profit on those products for e.g Windows
XP on eee pc at 49€

Customer behaviour can drastically change

11. Strenghts

If Microsoft closed, the economical impact will
be terrible;

Microsoft is almost unmovable, even if not
preinstalled, customers are requiring it;

Some countries even authorized
bundling(case of China) to face Piracy;

Customers are ignorant and mentality are hard
to change;

12. Recommandations

Hard to recommand Microsoft something

Build an image such as setting up a « we are
the good guys » policy by being more present
in people's life(offering more products, training
in public places)

13. Live Search

Microsoft Search engine

A recent technology for Microsoft(2004)

Google(1998), Yahoo(1994), Baidu(2000)

How Live Search can be so successful?
Leading the market in only four countries:
Colombia, Honduras,Rep. Dom, Angola

14. Distribution Channels

Through Internet, the user is then free;

Software, for e.g: Java, the user can be
locked;

Hardware, the user can be locked;

Web applications, for e.g: Facebook, the user
is locked;

His own products and services, for e.g:
hotmail, the user is locked;

15. Weaknesses

A bad product(more resquests made from
MSN rather than on Live Search itself)

Give a bad image of the company

Increase the unsatisfaction

16. Strenghts

Through those techniques Microsoft can
overcome some barriers that its competitors
cannot such as nationalism

To use those channels you need high capital
and to have a large range of products and
services

17. 
They invest too much time in setting up good
distribution strategies but what will happen if
the customer discover the situation(being
locked and using a bad product);

Microsoft should think about improving the
quality of his technology in this field

Think too much about marketing(changing the
layout, changing the name... « Kumo »)
Recommandations

18. Conclusion
“Bill Gates was not a computer wizard but a
genius of marketing.”
“I do not think that a company such as
Microsoft
Thinks about going bankrupt”
Their distribution channels are until
now unbeatable
They should however as a security take
care about their image, in the field of
technology threats can happen at any
time

19. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION