Microsoft Company History

Study Notes

In 1972, two childhood friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, founded Traf-O-Data.
Traf-O-Data sold a rudimentary computer to monitor automobile traffic data.
Gates enrolled at Harvard University while Allen pursued a degree in computer science at Washington State University.
Allen dropped out of Washington State to work at Honeywell.
In 1975, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft.
Microsoft's primary product was the BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
In the early 1980s, Microsoft became dominant in the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS.
In 1986, Microsoft went public and its share price rose.
In the 1990s, Microsoft diversified from the operating system market and made a number of corporate acquisitions.
In 2000, Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO.
In 2018, Microsoft reclaimed its position as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
In 2019, Microsoft reached the trillion-dollar market cap.
As of 2022, Microsoft has the fourth-highest global brand valuation.
In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created Microsoft, which became the leading PC operating systems vendor.
In 1980, Microsoft released its own version of Unix, Xenix, but it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance.
In 1985, Microsoft released Windows, which became a graphical extension for MS-DOS.
In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission examined Microsoft for possible collusion due to the partnership with IBM, but the company prevailed.
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT, which was heavily based on their copy of the OS/2 code.
In 1990, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Office suite which bundled separate applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
In 1993, Microsoft launched Windows 3.0, featuring streamlined user interface graphics.
In the early 1990s, Microsoft dominated the market for personal computers.
In 1995, Gates handed over the CEO position to Steve Ballmer, and the company began to focus on the Internet and the World Wide Web.
In 2000, Microsoft was found to have violated an agreement it had signed in 1994. The company was ordered to pay a fine and change its practices.
In the 2000s, Microsoft continued to focus on the Internet and the World Wide Web. In 2005, the company released Windows Vista, which was a major success.
In the early 21st century, Microsoft was a leading technology company with a wide range of products and services.
Microsoft's success can be attributed to its focus on innovation, its strong marketing efforts, and its aggressive competition with other technology companies.
Microsoft's most famous products are the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Mouse.
In the late 2000s, Microsoft struggled to keep up with its rivals in the smartphone industry and decided to revamp their aging flagship mobile operating system, Windows Mobile.
Windows Phone OS was successful and used a new user interface design language, Metro, which prominently used simple shapes, typography, and iconography.

Description

Test your knowledge of the history and milestones of Microsoft, from its humble beginnings with Traf-O-Data to its dominance in the personal computer operating system market and its foray into other products and services. Explore the key events, products, and individuals that shaped Microsoft's journey to becoming a global technology leader.