September 6, 1995: The newly launched Windows 95 operating system dominates software sales, sending virtually every other company scurrying for cover — Apple included.
After launching Windows 95 at the end of August, Microsoft sells a massive 1.63 million copies of the $85 PC operating system by early September, according to excited analysts. It represents a massive triumph for Apple’s biggest rival of the 1990s.
Sizzling sales for Windows 95
With the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft did more than unveil a new, radically upgraded operating system. It put Apple, a company already struggling to define its place in a rapidly changing computer industry, on notice: The Mac faced a dire new threat.
With a massive marketing campaign, a polished new interface and the kind of mainstream cultural attention normally reserved for consumer electronics, Microsoft turned the Windows 95 launch into an event and made the PC feel like the obvious choice for millions of people.
“Early Windows 95 sales sizzle,” said the September 6 edition of Computer Reseller News, summing up the excitement.
While sales started to taper off after the two-week mark, it’s hard to overstate just how big Windows 95 seemed at the time of its launch. For the operating system’s debut, Microsoft went into marketing overdrive — even paying to light up New York City’s Empire State Building in Microsoft colors.
It became apparent from the start that Windows 95 would be big. But by the time news stories began to roll out at the end of its second week, the updated Windows operating system was clearly a juggernaut.
Suddenly, Mac OS faces competition
The unexpectedly successful launch of Windows 95 proved a major blow to Apple’s psyche, as Microsoft delivered what many had feared: an OS close enough to Apple’s Mac OS to represent a threat.
“Microsoft was delivering a ‘look and feel’ which, while we threw rocks and said, ‘It’s not as good as ours,’ there was a fear that it was good enough that everybody who used Macs because they were easier to use, would then be able to say that Windows was just as easy,” said Mitch Stein, Apple’s former director of human interfaces, when I talked to him while researching my book The Apple Revolution.
Brad Silverberg, who started his career at Apple as a programmer on the Lisa computer, led the development of Windows 95. “I thought it was essentially game over for Apple,” Silverberg told me, recalling his thoughts about Microsoft’s hit operating system. “I didn’t see how they could compete.”
How Windows 95 inspired Apple
Inside Apple, the company attempted to deal with the massive success of the Windows 95 launch. Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be as straightforward as hoped. Development of Copland OS, Apple’s long-awaited update to the Mac’s aging System 7, sputtered to a halt. (Copland never shipped to more than a handful of developers.)
In Copland’s place, Apple management began looking around for something to replace it. What they eventually settled on was an operating system developed at NeXT, the company founded by Steve Jobs after he left Apple.
A deal took a while to work out. However, by September 1997, Apple bought NeXT and Jobs came back to Apple.
Ultimately, the launch of Windows 95 — which looked like a guaranteed Apple-killer — spurred Cupertino to greater heights than ever.
Which computer system, if any, were you using in 1995? Leave your comments below.
