Pitching Windows Microsoft Road Show To Launch New Software Rolls Into Spokane

Windows 95 is the foundation of a computing revolution that over the next three years will put even tiny businesses on a competitive footing with giant corporations.

That’s the assessment of Terence M. Strom, chief executive officer of Spokane-based Egghead Software, who spoke to hundreds of business people and computer buffs who gathered at the Spokane Convention Center Thursday to participate in Microsoft’s Spokane launch of Windows 95.

“In fact,” Strom said, “large corporations over the next three-to-seven years are going to find themselves at a potential disadvantage because they are going to have to do what they are not very good at, and that’s change quickly.”

Even though the software products that will eventually drive this revolution are still in development by Microsoft, Egghead and others, things are moving so rapidly that small and medium-sized businesses should adapt to Windows 95 right now, Strom said.

“Windows 95 is the door you will walk through to get there,” he said, “and if you wait until a year from now, you will be chasing (the revolution.)”

Microsoft formally launched Windows 95 - perhaps the most intensely marketed product in the history of advertising - on Aug. 24 with a huge presentation at its headquarters in Redmond that starred NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno.

The response has been phenomenal.

Despite the fact that most personal computing systems will require equipment upgrades to take full advantage of Windows 95, Microsoft sold 1 million copies of Windows in just four days. When the company launched DOS, the product upon which Microsoft built its foundation, it took 40 days to sell a million copies. Windows 95’s predecessor, Windows 3.1, didn’t sell a million copies until 50 days into its life cycle.

One company official pointed out that Windows 95’s opening weekend sales outgrossed the opening weekend ticket sales of the blockbuster movie “Jurassic Park.”

Now, Microsoft is taking a tape of that Aug. 24 event to other communities around the country, like Spokane, and augmenting it with demonstrations of Windows 95 for local audiences.

And while much of those demonstrations focus on all the “cool things” Windows 95 can do with ease, Strom directed his comments at “the very serious business applications” of the software package.

He said Windows 95 will be the software foundation upon which software products now in development will be based, and those products will make computer networks practical and affordable for even the smaller businesses. More importantly, he said, they will finally allow business to replace paper communications and transactions with digital transactions, and allow the easy electronic transfer of full documents among companies.

The elimination of paper, and the corresponding reduction in labor costs, will represent phenomenal savings, Strom said.

“The attitude your company has towards adapting to new technology, and how aggressive you are in changing technology, will determine your competitive ability,” Strom said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo Graphic: Windows 95’s start