Competing On Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape And Its Battle With Microsoft
Author: Michael A. Cusumano, David B. Yoffie
List Price: $21.95
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ISBN: 0684863456
Publisher: Free Press (12 January, 2000)
Sales Rank: 95,146
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 2 out of 5
chalkboard analysis
This is a well-written, interesting book. However, in my opinion, it tells only part of the story. It looks at how Netscape formulated its strategy, but not at how (or whether) this strategy was executed. This is like explaining a football game entirely on the basis of the diagrams that the coaches drew on the chalkboard. What actually happened on the field gets no attention.
For example, the authors claim that one of Netscape's strategies was to leverage Internet standards. However, the reality is that with its browser Netscape thumbed its nose at Internet standards, particularly when it dominated the market. Even today, its browser generally is seen as less compliant with standards than is Microsoft Explorer.
Another alleged Netscape strategy was to "eat your own dogfood," which means using your own products. The reality is quite different. For example, Netscape released a production version of Enterprise 3.0 and kept its own web site on Enterprise 2.0 for several months afterward.
In 1996, a key component of Netscape's web server was something they called LiveWire, which provided scripting and database connectivity. I adopted it for my web site in the second half of 1996. However, after several months of trying to get it to work reliably, we had to abandon it, moving to Java servlets instead.
Meanwhile, as of late 1997 (when I stopped following it), Netscape's web site still had not adoped LiveWire. They let other users suffer with the bugs and problems in LiveWire, while they ran their own site using the older technology of CGI/Perl. That means they spent at least 1-1/2 years in real time (multiply by 7x to get Internet time) NOT eating their own dogfood. In contrast, Microsoft used their competing Active Server Page technology immediately on their sites.
To return to the football analogy, my epitaph for Netscape is that it is a company that told the press and its shareholders that it was aiming to play in the Super Bowl, but disdained to practice blocking and tackling.
While Netscape's executives were formulating these nifty strategies, Sun and Microsoft were getting their code in shape. In my opinion, that is most of the story.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Interesting, objective look at the Browser Battle
One thing that I especially enjoyed about this book is that it almost completely avoided any gratuitous Gates/Microsoft bashing that appears to be vogue these days. Instead, Cusumano and Yoffie take the reader on a detailed yet interesting dissection of the organizations and decision making processes of the top brass at both Microsoft and Netscape. I also liked the way the authors would candidly point out where bad decisions/strategies were made, but fairly analyzed why they failed, and why they might have seemed like good decisions at the time. The allusions and comparisons to judo strategy in business were interesting as well.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Dull
Probably fine as a business tome, but as an entertaining read, I found this a failure. I hardly got through the first few pages; the books starts with a long, obvious and patronising exposition about how internet has transformed our lives and what a revolution it's been. It reminded me a lot of "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates.
Microsoft has been commercially successful, but at the cost of integrity. It has none whatsoever. This may indeed be Microsoft's downfall in the end, because the hatred towards this company is reaching a fever pitch. More and more users will realise that they can get by using other operating systems and products, supported by companies who have a less selfish vision for the future of computing. Similar Products
Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft
Netscape Time : The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up that Took on Microsoft
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