They had the ability to throw their weight around -- and they did. One popular example: competing browsers such as Netscape or Opera hardly stood a chance against an integrated IE in Windows. What changed this landscape? A few things, one of which was US v Microsoft.

Lotus 123 and WordPerfect were also crushed by Microsoft.

and Microsoft developed a superior office package. They were at one point behind 123 and WP.

but ironically. the browser should be integrated in the core of the OS.