Week 11 Assignment
Andy Johnson
1. The Dot.com Boom
The dot-com boom refers to the speculative investment bubble that formed around Internet companies between 1995 and 2000. The soaring prices of Internet start-ups encouraged investors to pour more money into any company with a “.com” or an “e-something” in its business plan. This excess capital encouraged Internet companies to form, often with very little planning, in order to get in on some of the easy money that was available at the time.
2. Microsoft and Bill Gates
During the 1990s personal computer technology evolved rapidly. Bill Gates was the head of Microsoft Corporation and a leader in the computer revolution. William (Bill) H. Gates is founder, technology advisor and board member of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software and services. He served as chairman of the board until Feb. 4, 2014. He began Microsoft on April 4, 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen in Albuquerque. Both Gates and Allen began developing software for personal computers because they believed that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home. At first, they developed Microsoft to sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. When Microsoft launched several versions of Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, they had captured over 90% market share of the world's personal computers. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup. It is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues as well as one of the world's most valuable companies.
3. IBM
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation. IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. Founded in 1911 by Charles Ranlett Flint, IBM was originally named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) after a merger of the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company. CTR was changed to "International Business Machines" in 1924. In 1937, IBM's tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process extraordinary amounts of data. The company has manufactured and sold such equipment as dial recorders, job recorders, recording door locks, timestamps and traffic recorders. On August 12, 1981, the IBM PC was built. IBM immediately became more of a presence in the consumer marketplace. IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as one of the world's largest computer companies and systems integrators. It is also one of the largest and most profitable information technology employers in the world.
4. Amazon.com
Amazon was founded on July 6th, 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Amazon was the first website to sell technologies. Amazon was an online website where people could buy compact discs, Computer hardware, computer software, videos and books. Amazon could offer books a very cheap price compared to the hard copy of a book. With the help of amazon online book became a new fenneman in the 1990s and a fenneman we still see today. This new online bookstore hurt bookstores, people began to buy books without having to go to a bookstore. Soon after the online books became the idea of buying videos and movies online began to shape. Amazon also began to sell everything online, clothes, cameras, kitchen supplies. Other online buying website began popping up for everything. So companies offered their stores on a online version, for clothing store you could now buy clothes online and get them shipped to you.
5. Yahoo
Founded january 1994. First called Jerry and David's guide to the world wide web. Then later in 1995 the name was changed to Yahoo. This website was a big leap in technology because this website allowed people to search for other websites.People could now look up jobs in woodbury Mn and a list of websites would come up. People could now search for educational answers online, shop and read papers all online. Became known for the web portal. Mainly known for its search engine.
6. Dell
Michael Dell was the founder of, Dell was a computer company founded in 1984.He started to sell IBM PC-compatible computer. Dell was one of the first companies to directly sell personal computer systems. By doing so the company could understand the customers wants and needs in order to better the product. When dell computers came out in 1985, the computers were cheaper because of the mass production. Computers became easier for people to buy and use. As Dell's company increased in size so did the number of computer owners and users. Dell then open a field of products such as printers, audio players and televisions. All of this technologies became very cheap and popular.
7. E-Bay
Ebay was founded on September 3, 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. This site is an online auction type of shopping. People can go online and put an item online for sale. People can then search for a item they want to buy and find one for sale. If only else wants that item then it become a auction for who will receive it. E-bay allowed people to sell random strangers their unwanted items. People now could shop online in their own homes. E-bay created a market for online goods and products.
8. PC Era
the PC era was started by IBM was the first personal computer. Other companies such as Dell also began to create PC’s. Soon Dell an IBM began to mass produce these PCs. PCs became cheap and easy to assemble. Soon almost every house had a family computer. This is when the PC era began. In the PC era people could now use the World wide web to search anything and everything. New companies such as Ebay and yahoo began to increase the popularity of PCs. WIth PCs people could now work at home. Students could now do school work online. Online communication such as email soon began popular. The PC era helped create a new field of jobs with computer and new technologies. Companies hired people to make the new faster and smaller computer. People began to go to school to specialize in computer sciences or in computer programming.
Why did the Dot.com Era eventually led to an economic bubble that bursted?
The dot-com boom was followed by the dot-com crash, which saw many startups fail as investors cut off funding or the proposed businesses proved to be unprofitable. Not all the dot-com companies were failures, however, and some, like Amazon.com, would eventually surpass the prices they enjoyed during the boom. The dot-com boom was fueled by too much enthusiasm for the new opportunities presented by the World Wide Web. That said, many of the wild predictions about how different the world of commerce would be due to the Web have increasingly become a reality – just not at the pace many investors were expecting.
Predict how the Dot.com bubble of the 1990's might relate to technological trends today.
The Dot.com bubble of the 1990's might relate to the technological trends today because as technology continues to advance, people will continue to depend on technology for businesses and such. If technology fails, businesses will ultimately fail as well, resulting in economic disaster. (I don’t really know how to answer this question).