Some of the reasons why software mogul and giant Microsoft is what it is may be apparent. They're a monopoly, yes. It's said time and time again. They monopolize the market; that is how they make all their money. A supreme court judge even ruled on the matter.

What most people don't realize is exactly how Micrsoft has engineered it's monopoly from the beginning. Their fortune did not come easily - no large fortune does. Microsoft is also constantly coming up with marketing themes (and schemes) in order to maintain their monopoly, and expand it.

For example is Microsoft Windows Update (for more information on Windows Update, refer to my article on "Should I Use Windows Update"). Should you have service pack one and would like to update to service pack two, you would need an original windows serial key. If you don't have one, you can't download the service pack off the windows update servers.

This is a smart marketing ploy. Why, you ask? Well, we all know that there are many, many copies of pirated MS Windows out there. Unless MS tried to deter this piracy, they wouldn't be the operation that they are. It may be true that if you really wanted to get around this problem, you'd find a way - but you would need a pretty good understanding of programming, visual basic, and the like.

MS has not only deterred piracy of windows with this approach, but contributed in a small way towards maintaining their monopoly.

Other reasons why MS is a monopoly - look at the MS Xbox. Xbox is a smart machine; it operates much like a PC and is one of the first machine to have PC-like features. This includes being able to expand the hard drive, change the OS, and connect to a router or high-speed connection for online play. Many games on the Xbox are not available on other platforms; although some PS2 games are available on xbox. When you want to watch a DVD, you have to have an Xbox DVD playback kit with a working remote, or you can't watch the DVD.

As you can see, everything Microsoft does, it does in a monopolizing fashion. They may have a monopoly on the OS market, but it's simply because there hasn't been large strides at making a similar OS that is more user friendly. Some might even be annoyed at the way they conduct business, but when analyzing their strategy it's clear that they have been using this same strategy for years and will use it for years to come.

I am a young, aspiring computer engineer into Internet Marketing, hardware, software, web design, SEO and just about anything related to computers. Please come check out my growing PC forum at http://www.markspcforum.com