If a business owner is asked about the source of their IT services, software and hardware, most of the time the answers are going to be relatively similar.
Most companies will use Microsoft Windows as their operating system, Microsoft Office/365 as their productivity suite, Outlook as their email service and either Edge or Google Chrome for web browsing. Graphic design and video editing are typically undertaken using Adobe’s Creative Suite.
The software companies dominant in the IT space have established brands, a reputation for quality, compatibility with any existing required file types or software components, and a reputation for quality customer service and regular maintenance that does not disrupt the business.
The reason for this is that companies who make IT tools have done so for decades and have an understanding of what customers need.
This is why Microsoft Office is widely used and Infocom’s Cornerstone was a tremendous, company-destroying failure.
Infocom were, at the time Cornerstone was being developed, a very successful company, best known for making text adventure computer games such as Zork and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and Bureaucracy.
However, despite the company producing dozens of games for a wide variety of platforms, Infocom wanted to make serious software, which led to the production of a relative database to compete with the then-dominant dBase II.
This piece of software would ultimately destroy the company, but not necessarily because it was poorly made. Contemporary reviews praised that the tool was lightweight and far easier to use than its competitors.
However, it was made with the same principles as their text adventures, which used a dedicated virtual machine to make it compatible with any computer on the market.
This was fine for relatively simple programs like games, but for databases it meant that intense applications were exceedingly slow, to the point that one reviewer abandoned their benchmark test after the database took three hours to import contacts.
It lacked macros and the capacity for special-purpose applications, meaning its only uses were very simplistic tasks.
Finally, a downturn in the computer business right as the database was released led to the rapid downfall of the company, which was sold to Activision in 1986 and closed before the end of the decade.