last time we looked at how Microsoft went from Distributing software on paper
tape to becoming the dominant force in
the consumer software industry up through their launch of Windows XP in
2001 Windows XP was incredibly
successful in spite of Microsoft's introduction of the unpopular product
activation feature designed to stop
piracy it was installed on an estimated 80
5% of desktop computers at one point
though another estimate put the proportion of illegitimate installations
at 35% poor Bill not that the European
Union had much sympathy for Microsoft when it slapped the company with a half
billion Euro fine in 2004 citing abuse
of its dominance with proprietary code
Microsoft was also forced to ship Windows XP without media player for the
European market sound familiar not to be deterred though by
royally cheesing off Regulators on at least two continents by this point
Microsoft pushed forward with new products like zoom and Windows Vista
both of which flopped harder than the Star Wars holiday special Zoom was a
portable music player and by most accounts a really cool one too bad that
by the time zoom was released in late 2006 iPod had already become synonymous
with taking your music with you Windows
Vista that same year was in a way the
other side of the same coin in the sense that it was released with a lot of
fanfare but was quickly panned by veteran Tech reviewers and novice
computer users alike although it looked
modern with appealing features like The Arrow theme and desktop widgets at
launch it lacked driver support it was
unstable it required more processing power than mere mortals could afford and
it Incorporated some extremely unpopular DRM Technologies forcing Microsoft to
offer Vista license owners the option to
downgrade back to Windows XP oops the
mid 2000s weren't a total disaster for Microsoft though the Xbox 360 released
in late 2005 went on to become a true
Juggernaut in the world of console gaming with its comfortable intuitive
controller that remains popular to this day a well-implemented online experience
through Xbox Live a large game library
and solid performance at a lower cost
than Sony's Playstation 3 the Xbox 360
even outsold the PS3 despite Sony's
greater experience in the console Market
later in 2009 Microsoft finally released
a worthy successor to the then 8-year-old Windows XP the simply named
Windows 7 which retained the visual
appeal of Windows Vista but featured vast improvements to Performance and
stability as well as modern features like better support for multi-core CPUs
and the ability to snap Windows to the
sides of the screen in fact in Sp of Microsoft's free upgrade offer to
Windows 10 Windows 7 is still the most
used version of Windows as of January
2017 but with smartphones especially the
iPhone from rival Apple computer exploting in popularity around this time
Microsoft knew it couldn't focus primarily on the traditional PC space
forever and rolled out Windows Phone 7
in 2010 with subsequent mobile versions
of Windows in the following years
unfortunately for Microsoft Windows Phone having been beaten to the punch by
iOS and Android more or less went the
same way as the zoom so app developers didn't bother supporting Windows Phone
completing Microsoft's failure Baloo more successful though not
entirely without controversy was Windows 8 in 2012 which Microsoft designed to
function on traditional desktop and laptops but also Tablet PCs with an
interface designed to be more modern and cool with terminology like live
tiles unfortunately this concept did not
translate well to the millions of people who still used mice and keyboards and
Windows 8 struggled to gain popularity I mean you can't just take away the start
button and expect everybody to be okay with that maybe that's why Windows 8. 1
was a free upgrade Microsoft's Hardware designed for Windows 8 did a little
better though and I'm not talking about the ARM powerered Surface RT that Bond
but about the full fat Surface tablets which were also introduced in 2012 since
they ran full versions of Windows versus the more limited Mobile os's on
competing tablets like the iPad Microsoft started to gain Traction in
the mobile Computing scene in spite of
NFL announc ERS calling them iPads as they watch coaches draw plays on the
sidelines it was also in 2012 that Microsoft started signing people up for
Microsoft accounts enabling a single
signin across devices as part of its push to get users into the Microsoft
ecosystem that included services like Office 365 its subscription based
version of The Beloved productivity Suite One Drive cloud storage and Skype
which it had purchased in 2011 indeed Microsoft made seamlessness between its
own Services a priority with the launch of the Windows store alongside Windows 8
as well as with the Xbox One in 2013
which was hyped as a do-it-all living room box with enhanced connectivity with
Windows rather than just another game
console the concept was taken even further in 2015 with the new Windows 10
featuring tight integration with the Cortana voice assistant Microsoft's
answer to Siri and compatibility with
the universal Windows platform which allows certain applications to run on
both desktop and Mobile Windows as well
as the Xbox One and Hollow lens a smart
glasses product that Microsoft is currently trying to get off the ground
of course with its fingers in so many different parts of the tech industry
Microsoft is facing a lot more competition than it did 10 or 15 years
years ago but could this mean that they'll be more consistent about
producing quality products in the future with their feet to the fire maybe so but
Bing isn't the most compelling argument for that
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Linus thanks for watching guys like dislike leave a comment with suggestions
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