Primarily due to companies like Dell, Gateway 2000, AST, HP, Compaq, etc. including Office as an option when you purchased.
I would posit that it was due to WP screwing the pooch at every turn. They held out until they couldn't on releasing a Windows version, and it was as buggy and unreliable as you would expect from a rushed product designed to check a marketing checkbox. WP also bet on OS/2, and they did it by porting what was already a poor product, so the OS/2 version ended up being a poor, buggy product that had the added bonus (due to an interpretation layer) of being dog slow.
So maybe Microsoft's success can be attributed somewhat to bundling, but much of it can also be laid at the feet of competitors like WP and Lotus.
I would posit that it was due to WP screwing the pooch at every turn. They held out until they couldn't on releasing a Windows version, and it was as buggy and unreliable as you would expect from a rushed product designed to check a marketing checkbox. WP also bet on OS/2, and they did it by porting what was already a poor product, so the OS/2 version ended up being a poor, buggy product that had the added bonus (due to an interpretation layer) of being dog slow.
So maybe Microsoft's success can be attributed somewhat to bundling, but much of it can also be laid at the feet of competitors like WP and Lotus.