How 50 years of Microsoft has changed the world…
Half a century on from the company’s launch, Microsoft products continue to drive the world’s economy and consumer technology.
It’s been exactly half a century since two youthful software programmers set up a garage enterprise in the New Mexico city of Albuquerque.
After creating a new programming language for an Altair computer, Paul Allen and Bill Gates christened their fledgling partnership Micro-soft.
By the end of 1975, total sales stood at $16,000 – a significant sum at the time, but hardly indicative that the (swiftly dehyphenated) Microsoft brand would go on to dominate global computing.
Today, there’s a very high chance you’re reading this article on either a Microsoft operating system (Windows), a Microsoft browser (Edge) or a Microsoft laptop/2-in-1 PC (Surface).
Other Microsoft-owned brands include Xbox, 365, Teams, Azure, LinkedIn, Activision, GitHub, Skype, OpenAI…the list goes on.
Imagining a world without any of these Microsoft products and brands is impossible, especially since many have no real alternatives, or remain originators in a market filled with imitators.
Would Zoom exist without Skype? Would macOS or Linux have been developed without Windows to rail against? Would Google Docs be popular if Office (now 365) hadn’t blazed a trail first?
As Microsoft celebrates its 50th birthday, it’s worth taking a moment to review how its products have changed not just computing, but also the way we use the internet.
First among sequels
While Microsoft hasn’t always been the first company to introduce new platforms, products and programs, it has an impressive hit rate in terms of achieving market dominance.
Way back in 1983, Microsoft Word debuted alongside the first Microsoft-compatible mouse. It introduced the world to the joys of underlined italics, style sheets and graphics.
Two years later, the troublesome command prompt was negated when Windows arrived, offering (at the time) advanced features like multitasking and data sharing.
Pivotal though Windows was to the explosion in home and office-based computer use, its influence was arguably trumped by a software package arriving ten years later.
Released to serve meteoric growth in internet usage, 1995’s Internet Explorer introduced features like browser tabs, favourites and a search box – all ubiquitous ever since.
Failure breeds success
Throughout the 21st century, Microsoft has continued to launch hugely successful products – the Xbox (2001), Bing (2009) and the IE-replacement Edge web browser (2015).
However, it’s also worth touching on a few Microsoft products which were less transformative.
Foremost among these are the Windows phone (briefly touted as an alternative to iOS or Android), Groove Music (a failed Spotify rival) and Cortana (even less dependable than Siri).
Even some core Microsoft products have disappointed, as anyone who had the misfortune to use either Windows 8 or Vista will ruefully attest.
The sixth-generation Internet Explorer, released alongside Vista’s predecessor (XP), was crude and bug-ridden.
As such, it echoed the rushed release of the deeply flawed MS-DOS 4.0 fifteen years earlier.
Yet even these failed Microsoft products have had an influence.
Windows 10 was so good because Windows 8 failed to blend tablet and desktop usability, and Microsoft couldn’t risk two OS disasters in a row.
Edge is a slick and capable web browser because the last versions of Internet Explorer were too sluggish to compete against Chrome, Safari, Opera et al.
People have criticised the unfocused Xbox One console, the flaky Teams networking tool or Bing’s questionable ranking of search results, yet all three have enjoyed lasting success.
Today’s tech-saturated society leaves little room for ground-breaking innovations, but Microsoft products will undoubtedly remain central in our professional and personal lives for decades to come.
