Microsoft hasn’t successfully entered a new market in a long time now, and so despite the good profits, Wall Street hasn’t rewarded Microsoft for them. Yes, Microsoft is still incredibly profitable, but these profits come mostly from the Windows and Office product offerings.

Jean-Louis Gassee provides some very interesting insights into the company’s past ten years. The company is still riding high upon its Windows and Office offerings, but when it comes to new markets, Microsoft hasn’t been as successful. While Wikipedia lets users continually update or refine entries, improvements suggested to Encarta must pass muster with editors before eventually being incorporated into the data base.While Microsoft is indeed incredibly profitable, it’s not going as well as it seems. 'People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.' Encarta was launched in 1993 as competition for traditional reference books such as those offered by Encyclopedia Britannica.Įncarta was originally available for purchase as a multimedia computer resource in DVD-ROM or CD-ROM formats and eventually became available online on a subscription basis.Įncarta's popularity faded after the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikipedia online in 2001. 'The category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed,' Microsoft said in an online message at its Encarta website on Monday. The US software colossus said that on October 31 it will turn off all its Encarta websites everywhere except in Japan, with that service to be terminated on the last day of December. SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft plans to close its Encarta online encyclopedia, which competes in an arena dominated by communally-crafted free Internet reference source Wikipedia. Microsoft plans to close its Encarta online encyclopedia, which competes in an arena dominated by communally-crafted free Internet reference source Wikipedia.

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