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•88 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time
which was supported by a huge advertising campaign spend of over $10 million in
six months. In return, Windows 3.0 sold 100,000 copies in two weeks.
1991 saw the continuation of a buying revolution. That year Microsoft shipped
four million copies of Windows 3.0 to 24 countries in 12 languages. The momentum
was kept going by PC manufacturers including Windows with their machines. The
following year, Microsoft used television advertising to reach an even broader audience.
Windows NT took the company further into business computing, offering cli-
ent server solutions. After a big build up Windows 95 was launched in August 1995
to nationwide interest. It sold more than one million copies during the first four
days of retail availability in North America. By October that number had gone up to
seven million worldwide.
30,000 1800%
1600%
25,000 Sales 1400%
20,000 Growth 1200%
1000%
Sales 800%
Growth600%
15,000 400%
200%
10,000 0%
5,000
0
Year
Fig. 1 Microsoft sales revenues ($m) and growth to 2002.
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