Competing on Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape & Its Battle with Microsoft

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Summary: A product manager's view
Review: I had bought this book about a year ago, but never got around to reading it until now. My mistake! This is an excellent chronology and analysis of Netscape's growth and the challenges it faced. The quotes from the interviews with many key people at Netscape, as well as people at Microsoft, joined with the authors' analysis was great. I found many, many analogies to Netscape's perdicament with my own challenges at work. I read "AOL.com" by Kara Swisher, which was a good chronology of AOL.com, but it's the analysis and chronology that really differentiates "Competing on Internet Time" from most other "high-tech" books.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Michael A. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie have written a play-by-play of the competition between Netscape and Microsoft in an enormously detailed book that became an instant classic. Adding to the insider scoop, the authors take the opportunity to show readers how they can apply the "lessons" from this historic corporate battle to their own businesses in the context of today's fast-paced world, which runs on "Internet time." Critically acclaimed, the book is filled with facts, figures, insights and strategies, and manages to do it all without drowning in tedium. We at getAbstract highly recommend this book to people in all business. It's exceptionally well written and flows like a good adventure saga, which it is. (getAbstract note: Despite its commendable Judo tactics, Netscape in late 1998 was acquired by America Online Inc. in a deal that was roundly viewed as a final victory for Microsoft in the browser war.)

Rating:
Summary: Dull
Review: Probably fine as a business tome, but as an entertaining read, I found this a failure. I hardly got through the first few pages; the books starts with a long, obvious and patronising exposition about how internet has transformed our lives and what a revolution it's been. It reminded me a lot of "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates.
Microsoft has been commercially successful, but at the cost of integrity. It has none whatsoever. This may indeed be Microsoft's downfall in the end, because the hatred towards this company is reaching a fever pitch. More and more users will realise that they can get by using other operating systems and products, supported by companies who have a less selfish vision for the future of computing.