Most of us are dependent, if not co-dependent, on the software and products created by the company that Bill Gates and Paul Allen started. “You have to credit Gates’ leadership with the Windows operating system, whether you like or dislike what it’s grown to be,” says Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm that tracks the company.
HITS
Microsoft
MS-DOS/Windows 3.0/Windows 95
In August 1981, IBM introduced its personal computer – a foreign notion, with computers having been anything but personal at that time, and largely relegated to government, military and big businesses. IBM’s PC came with Microsoft’s operating system software, MS-DOS 1.0. It was the first operating system to be used on a large scale by those brave enough to try home computing on their own. In 1983 Microsoft came out with the Windows operating system, which had a more graphical desktop look resembling that of computers made by a company called Apple. With Windows 3.0, released in 1990, Microsoft further refined the operating system and added Program Manager, File Manager and Print Manager. Windows 95 was hyped to the max with commercials featuring the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.” When Windows 95 went on sale in August, 1995, buyers lined up at stores around the country, which opened at midnight just to sell the much-anticipated operating system. Among other things, Windows 95 was even better designed graphically than its predecessors, and offered the first “plug-and-play” capabilities for hardware, as well as the ability to right-click on a mouse for more commands, rather than using a one-button mouse.
Microsoft
Microsoft Office
How sweet it is for Microsoft’s office suite of Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, which started life as separate programs. Office rules the office, as well as the home in most cases. Even second-graders now put together PowerPoint presentations with familiarity and ease. While there are challengers, some of which are free – such as Google Docs and OpenOffice.org – Office so far maintains a healthy lead, according to a study done last fall of business and government educational professionals by research firm IDC. “The fact is 97 percent are still using Office,” said Melissa Webster, IDC vice president who authored the study.
Microsoft
Internet Explorer
The icon of the aqua “e” with a golden ring around it represents the most used Web browser in the world, with nearly three-quarters of Web surfers using Internet Explorer, according to Net Applications. However, that number has dropped from more than a 95 percent share four years ago, with a growing number of Firefox and Safari users. Microsoft got into the Internet business well after others, despite Bill Gates’ exhortation to company executives. In the early 1990s, online services like Prodigy, CompuServe and America Online were the avenues for most people who wanted to get to the still-little known Internet. Then, in December, 1994, Netscape Navigator was launched, making it possible to more easily access the World Wide Web by use of what was, and still is, known as a Web browser. In 1995, both the Microsoft Network (MSN), a-then AOL knock-off, and Microsoft’s Web browser, Internet Explorer 1.0 were launched. Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows – at a time when Netscape was still being sold as a product, rather than available for free – made Microsoft the subject of a federal antitrust case in 1998.
John Smock / AP
Xbox
In 2001, Microsoft faced an uphill battle against the Sony PlayStation 2, which was introduced in 2000. Despite the one-year jump Sony had on Microsoft, the Xbox did respectably well. Its success was owed in large part to the hugely popular first-person shooter “Halo.” The goal of the original Xbox, however, was not to dominate the market, but simply to establish a foothold and pave the way for the company’s next-generation console, the Xbox 360. Released in 2005, the Xbox 360 beat Sony’s PlayStation 3 to market, and won new fans. The effort suffered a setback when large numbers of Xbox 360 owners started reporting that the power button, normally green when on, instead was turning red, indicating a hardware failure. Last year, Microsoft said it would spend about $1 billion to extend its warranty program for the console from one year to three. In the meantime, Nintendo’s Wii, released in late 2006, has been the hot console to have. Last month, Microsoft said that Xbox 360 has sold more than 10 million units in the United States. Billy Pidgeon, IDC research manager for games, said that the Xbox ended May “with a very slim lead” over the Wii in North America and worldwide. “Next quarter, I expect the Wii to take first position,” and maintain it through 2011, he said.
Microsoft
‘Halo’
This futuristic, science fiction game is the one that put a halo around the Xbox for Microsoft, which has rights to the game developed by Bungie Studios, once owned by Microsoft. The first “Halo” shipped in late 2001, and is widely regarded as the “killer app” for the then-upstart Xbox platform. When “Halo 3” was released last fall, there were lines of people waiting to buy it at midnight at stores around the country, reminiscent of another Microsoft product launch, Windows 95. Worldwide, in its first week, nearly $300 million was spent on “Halo 3,” the company said. On Oct. 1, Microsoft and Bungie announced a parting of the ways, with Bungie becoming a privately held independent entity. The move fueled rumors of a rift between the two during the development of “Halo 3.” Microsoft retained a minority stake in the company – plus the rights to the blockbuster “Halo” franchise.
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Microsoft
MISSES
Windows Vista/Windows Me
Windows Vista, released last year, has been a source of heartburn for many users and for Microsoft. Few seem happy with this operating system, which runs better on newer computers with faster chips and more memory than on older or economy-scale PCs. “It’s incredibly confusing to understand what the real hardware requirements are for Vista,” said Cherry of Directions on Microsoft. “I would think there must be some way to state them in a manner that the average person can understand, but I still haven’t seen that done.” Vista also lacked the drivers, or software programs, needed to have it work smoothly with other hardware and software. Businesses have not hurried to adopt the new OS, nor have consumers. Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor released in 2001, has a 72 percent market share, while Vista is a little more than 15 percent, according to Net Applications. The only other Microsoft operating system to be so detested is Windows Millennium Edition (2000), which was unstable and led to Pepcid AC-popping by many a user.
Microsoft
Microsoft Bob
Poor Microsoft Bob, a dorky-but-well-meaning 1995 desktop program symbolized by a smiley face with glasses. Bob’s aim was to personalize the computing experience, and make it less intimidating to those who were not experts at DOS or Windows 3.1 (Windows 95 was released after Bob was.) Bob had eight programs, including Letter Writer, Calendar, Checkbook, Household Manager, Address Book and Financial Guide that could be accessed through “personal guides,” with corny rooms and room styles for the user to choose for decorating the setting of each program. But Bob was gone from the market by 1996. Depending on whom you talk to, Bob was ahead of its time or a total flop.
Microsoft
Clippy
He may be the most reviled avatar in the workplace world. The paper clip character whose starring role was as Office Assistant in Office 97, always seemed to pop up at the worst times. Among them: when you were in a hurry and trying to save a crucial document, then hit the wrong key, or if you were in the middle of a Great Thought, hadn’t yet typed it in but hit a wrong key – boom! There was Clippy, slowing you down, interrupting you, asking annoying questions. In 2001, Microsoft put Clippy on the back burner in Office XP by keeping him turned off by default. “Diehard supporters can turn Clippy back on if they miss him,” the company said in a press release. But Clippy was clipped out entirely of Office 2007.
HP
Windows Media Center PCs
First introduced in 2002, Windows Media Center PCs had the right idea, but the wrong execution. Microsoft aimed to move into the living room, tying the PC and the TV together for recording television shows on the computer, and taking music, photos and videos from the PC and putting them on the TV. The rise of TiVo and other digital video recorder offerings from cable and satellite companies, as well as the online availability and sale of TV shows from various sites, including Apple’s iTunes, have offset some of the value of Media Center PCs. In addition, the complexity involved in setting them up left the task better suited for those with tech savvy rather than regular folks wanting a plug-and-play experience.
David Bell
SPOT Watch
Perhaps in 2003 it was still too early to predict the rise of smartphones, or at least smarter phones. That was when Microsoft’s smart watch, the SPOT watch, was unveiled with fanfare at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. SPOT stood for “Smart Personal Objects Technology.” Wearers of the watches, made mainly by Fossil and Suunto using the Microsoft technology, could get news, stock quotes, weather and calendar information using a radio chip that transmitted the information over low-power FM frequencies. A subscription to MSN Direct was required at a charge of $9.95 a month, or $59 for a year. The watch battery needed frequent recharging, which took some of the appeal away. It’s not publicly known how many SPOT watches were sold. But they’re no longer available, according to MSN Direct’s Web site. “We, along with our watch partners, do not have immediate plans to create a new version of the Smart Watch, as we are focused on other areas of our business,” says a statement on the site.
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