Alterations and refinements of the program have already delayed its release date by eight months after three-and-a-half years' development.The fact that mere rumours, which were quickly denied, could move the entire market indicates the clout that Microsoft, with its turnover of $5bn, now wields in the world's $100bn PC industry. Ten days ago, the Dow Jones index dipped briefly on rumours that the product's launch might be delayed by a further few days or weeks. Last week, Forbes declared that Mr Gates had finally made it to the top with his pounds 8.6bn fortune.The expectation that has built up over the launch of Windows 95 has been huge. For Bill Gates, Microsoft's chief executive, it will simply underpin his position as the richest man in the world. Windows 95 is expected to reinforce the company's hegemony.Intelligence InfoCorp, which specialises in analysing PC markets, reckons Windows 95 could sell up to 20 million copies this year and perhaps 50 million in 1996, bringing in about $1bn (pounds 625m) in revenues.
Microsoft's current Windows dominates IBM-compatible personal computers, which themselves dominate the market for desktop computers. (Versions in 30 other languages will follow in the succeeding three months.) Microsoft, and the rest of the software industry, expects that it will be the fastest-selling piece of software ever. But every new product launch is a gamble. And after five years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D, this is Microsoft's biggest punt yet.Every computer needs an operating system to make its other software work. In the factories, the program will be copied on to thousands of CD-ROMs and then distributed for simultaneous launch of the English version all over the world. The program is the "gold" or final version of a product whose release on 24 August will be the biggest event in the software industry for years: Microsoft's new operating system for personal computers, Windows 95.
LATER this week, factories in the US and Eire will receive a copy of a computer program, to be transferred and copied on to CD-ROMs - the computer data form of compact discs. Less than two weeks later, Barings collapsed under losses two- and-a-half times the bank's capital.. On 13 February, at a meeting of Barings' management committee, Ian Hopkins, group head of risk control, also explained the problem as "operational error". The auditors' concerns were transmitted to Barings' senior management, including Geoffrey Broadhurst, group finance director, James Bax, in charge of operations in Singapore, and Peter Norris, chief executive of the investment bank.At the meeting of Barings' central risk committee on 8 February, the problem raised by Coopers was dismissed as an "operational error". The Singapore authorities have claimed as part of their request to extradite Mr Leeson from Germany that the documentation to explain this $75m trade involving the US investment house Spears, Leeds and Kellogg was forged.