In the early 1990s, Microsoft was engaged in fierce competition with IBM for dominance in the software market. The two companies had collaborated on the OS/2 operating system in the 1980s before Microsoft broke ties and focused on its own operating system, called Windows. Microsoft began shipping copies of Windows 3.1 in March 1992, about two weeks before IBM began shipping the newest version of OS/2. Microsoft also launched a large advertising campaign for Windows, which began with the shipping announcement. Microsoft said they had nine manufacturing sites producing Windows 3.1 disks, they expected to ship 1 million copies by the official release date, and they expected to produce about 10 million disks in the first month of production.

In this image, Francis J. Gaudette, Microsoft’s chief financial officer (left), and Mike Maples, executive vice president, announce the shipping of Windows 3.1 disks at a Federal Express warehouse at Sea-Tac Airport. Each holds a copy of the software, and a pallet behind them is loaded with more copies. The sign on the pallet instructs couriers not to deliver before the official release date of April 6, 1992.

Caption information source: “Microsoft sees its Windows of opportunity against IBM,” by Karen West, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 19, 1992, page B4.