Microsoft At 50: The 4 Worst Train Wrecks In The Company’s History

Sure, Microsoft mightiness beryllium riding precocious these days connected nan backmost of generative AI, but it wasn't ever truthful successful. Remember Windows Vista? The antitrust conflict pinch nan US government? Windows Phone?

Microsoft is worthy astir $1 trillion today, but that sky-high valuation didn’t travel without a fewer train wrecks during its first 50 years. I’m not talking astir smaller screwups for illustration nan brain-dead Clippy, Microsoft’s intrusive Office helper from 1995. Instead, I’m looking astatine nan ones pinch awesome consequences that successful immoderate cases group Microsoft backmost years, made it suffer retired connected important markets, and costs nan institution billions of dollars.

Here are nan company’s 4 worst screw-ups. (And here’s a look astatine its biggest successes.)

Microsoft’s antitrust proceedings and nan mislaid decade

During Microsoft’s first 23 years, nan institution was connected a rocket-like trajectory, pinch only comparatively insignificant bumps. It ruled nan tech world, swatting distant competitors pinch ease, building monopolies successful operating systems, productivity software, and beyond. 

Microsoft mislaid nan suit, appealed, and eventually settled pinch nan feds. It avoided a firm break-up, but was forced to let alternatives to Internet Explorer to vessel pinch Windows aliases beryllium easy to install. The punishment astatine nan clip seemed for illustration a slap connected nan wrist. But Microsoft put truthful overmuch power into nan fight, it had small clip and resources to attraction connected nan changing tech world — and mislaid retired connected a procreation of tech advances.

Steve Ballmer’s Monkey Boy creation and disastrous 14-year reign 

Steve Ballmer took complete from Bill Gates arsenic Microsoft CEO successful 2000 and began a 14-year reign successful which he acted for illustration a transverse betwixt a comedian and nan Godfather, pinch disastrous results.

His solution to almost each problem nan institution faced was to effort to usage Windows arsenic a bludgeon to lb and hit competitors. The maneuver grounded clip and clip again, and Ballmer learned thing on nan way. In conscionable 1 illustration of really arrogance blinded him to nan caller reality of tech, he insisted a Windows-based mobile operating strategy would norm nan world, telling USA Today in 2007 aft nan iPhone’s launch: “There’s nary chance that nan iPhone is going to get immoderate important marketplace share. No chance.” (More connected that below.)

His sometimes clownish nationalist behaviour made him a laughingstock, specified arsenic his infamous “Monkey Boy Dance,” where he danced, howled, screamed and acted for illustration a madman astatine a convention to show his enthusiasm for Microsoft. Another YouTube favourite is nan famous “Developers” video, which captured him soaked pinch sweat, screaming “Developers, developers, developers, developers…” — until his sound gave out.

Thanks to his antics, Microsoft nether his activity went from nan world’s tech leader to not overmuch much than an afterthought. The institution mislaid retired connected net hunt and web browsing to Google, societal networking to Meta (then known arsenic Facebook) and others, and mobile computing to Apple.

A cloudy Vista

Microsoft became nan early king of tech based mostly connected its worldwide monopoly connected operating systems, first pinch nan character-based MS-DOS, and later pinch Windows. So, erstwhile 1 of its operating systems bombed, it had an outsized power connected nan tech world and nan institution itself.

Though it has released plentifulness of stinkers on nan way, Windows Vista stands retired for its utter awfulness — truthful bad that moreover apical executives astatine nan institution couldn’t get it to execute nan simplest tasks, specified arsenic printing.

People hated its resource-hungry interface, it wouldn’t tally connected older PCs, and it was doomed by countless hardware incompatibilities. To effort and juice sales, Microsoft came up pinch a bone-headed scheme to merchandise “Vista-capable PCs” that would tally only a stripped-down type of nan operating system.

Unfortunately, those PCs couldn’t moreover do that. Mike Nash, who became a firm vice president for Windows merchandise management, wrote successful an email astir nan PCs, “I PERSONALLY sewage burnt…I now person a $2,100 email machine.” Another Microsoft worker wrote successful an email, “Even a portion of junk will qualify” to beryllium called Windows Vista Capable.

Steven Sinofsky, who was nan apical executive successful complaint of Windows, couldn’t moreover get his printer to activity pinch it. He admitted he wasn’t moreover judge what “Vista-capable” meant.

Windows, don’t telephone home

When it comes to nan biggest explosive successful Microsoft’s past, nary comes adjacent to nan disaster of Windows Phone, which started retired its sad life successful 2001 arsenic a mobile operating strategy called Pocket PC 2002. Although Microsoft launched nan mobile operating system six years before nan iPhone’s debut, it was doomed from commencement because Ballmer decided immoderate mobile operating strategy had to beryllium intimately tied to Windows — not designed from nan crushed up for mobile.

I won’t spell into each nan gory specifications of what a poorly designed, unusable operating strategy it was. Instead, I’ll fto a fewer numbers show nan tale. When Microsoft launched a revamped, full-blown type successful 2012, it had already spent billions successful improvement costs, then spent $400 cardinal publicizing nan launch. 

But money can’t bargain you love. Few group bought nan phones, and nan institution ended up spending $1,666 successful trading and advertizing for each 1 sold, acold supra nan $100 unit price, which Microsoft was forced to slash to $50, to nary avail.

Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 cardinal successful a hopeless effort to salvage nan operating system. It didn’t work. When nan company finally put Windows Phone retired of its misery, it had a pathetic 1.3% marketplace stock successful nan US, and little successful astir different places, including 1% successful Great Britain and Mexico, 1.2% successful Germany, and 0% successful China.

If you for illustration business scary stories, you tin get more gruesome specifications here.