Microsoft’s 10 Biggest Failures

The Successes and Failures of Microsoft

microsoft it is a large company that has many products behind it, although it is mainly associated with Windows. Microsoft Office, Azure, Teams, Surface, etc. are other Microsoft products, some better known and used, but also has other lesser known and/or that have not caught on with the public. In this guide we will see Microsoft’s 10 Biggest Failures.

In addition to the Windows operating systems that have been with us since the 1980s, Microsoft has been launching a series of products, be it hardware, software, services, etc., that have penetrated to a greater or lesser extent among the public. Has known adapt to the times and has been creating and modifying its products to make them better (or worse), some have survived and others have been forgotten, if they were ever known.

we already know that Microsoft doesn’t just live off software, has also launched hardware products most of which have not been very successful, there are obvious exceptions such as Xbox. But others, like the Microsoft Band, did not come to fruition, having to discontinue the product instead of updating it and releasing new versions.

Let’s see what these products are that, even some, you may not even have heard about them.

The 10 Microsoft products that have failed

Microsoft has been very successful, but it also has some products that have not satisfied the public, even going so far as to cancel them in a very short time.

microsoft band

It was the year 2014, that year was the revolution of wearables and Microsoft did not want to be without its piece of cake. At the end of October, the Microsoft Band was announced, an activity bracelet that was more than an activity bracelet, with smart watch functions.

Microsoft did not expect such success and a few days after its launch product sold out, leaving the Christmas season without any Microsoft Band on the shelves. When he replaced the product it was too late, he had competed with Fitbit and the Apple Watch was closer. In 2015, when the Apple Watch was already being sold, Microsoft launched the second version of this Microsoft Band, but it was no longer as successful as the initial one due to the great and strong competition. Soon Microsoft ended up discontinuing this bracelet.

windows phone

Speaking of the King of Rome, Windows Phone was another failure of Microsoft in the form of an operating system for devices portable. We must not confuse the different versions of Windows to mobilesthe first was Windows Mobile for PDAs and mobiles, which is still in use, followed by Windows Phone, and finally Windows 10 Mobile, which were a real failure.

windows phone changed its interface to Metro UI (later Modern UI), a system based on squares similar to what we saw in Windows 8 for PCs. This system of squares did not come to be liked by users. market share hardly exceed 2% but over time and as new versions were released, it was gaining something to position itself by just over 3.5%.

Definitely in 2015, after Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia, windows phone disappeared.

microsoft zune

Who does not know the mythical iPod? So all the companies they wanted to imitate the success of this popular music player, who lived with us when mobile phones did not yet have this feature. Microsoft wanted to do the same with your Zune playerbut unfortunately it came late to the market, when the iPod was already very well established and Apple introduced the iPhone.

Zune arrived in 2006, and the iPod was already 5 years old in the market. Though Microsoft imitated the legendary touch-sensitive iPod wheel, not even with those did he overshadow him. Several wheeled models were released that had flash or hard drive storage. Also a Zune HD similar to the iPod Touch.

In 2012 Microsoft ended the stage of music players.

Cortana

Despite being the oldest of the voice assistants, it seems that it has not caught on among users. Cortana was released in april 2014 and that same year, at the end, Alexa would see the light next to the Echo devices where it works. It seems that the integration with these smart speakers was liked more than the orders that Cortana offered along with Windows 10 and Windows Phone. Microsoft did not give up and launched Cortana for Android and iOS, as well as including it on Xbox.

But finally, although the service is not canceled, it stopped being the default voice assistant for Windows 10 and discontinued apps for iOS and Android. Google Assistant is very well integrated with Android phones, iOS has its own with more integration into its ecosystem, and smart speakers seem to prefer Alexa.

Windows Me and Windows Vista

Windows Me and Windows Vista came after two great operating systems, Windows 98 and Windows XP respectively. Its change of appearance, among others, did not please the public who desperately returned to the corresponding previous versions, even when they bought a new computer and the new Windows Me or Vista was included.

Windows 98 had focused its efforts on further polishing Windows 95 and Windows XP was a robust system based on Windows 2000. Microsoft decided to give Windows Me and Windows Vista a facelift. from which everyone ran.

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine

In a kingdom dominated by Google, Microsoft (and a few others) do their bit when it comes to web search engines. Microsoft’s Bing has failed to achieve remarkable success, being practically negligible in our country. Google obtains more than 95% of the searches, while the remaining scarce 5% is distributed among others, of which Bing has obtained a 2.65% share in Spain during 2021. One more failure.

clippy

who does not remember this famous clip that appeared, even when you didn’t need it, when you typed some document in Microsoft Office in the year 2000? At first he seemed nice, kind, useful… until became heavy. Such was his insistence that people began to search the internet how to disable it and only resort to help when it was necessary, not when Clippy decided. This was another failure of Microsoft in help format.

Windows 11

In reality, we are not talking about the failure of the operating system, but about some of its features that have fallen by the wayside compared to Windows 10. For example, Windows 11 has a new context menu, but it does not include all the options, having to go back to the old menu format to see the full list. Another option that has also been left in Windows 10 is that does not allow dragging to the toolbar.

Internet Explorer and Edge

As for browsers, Microsoft also has shoehorned them into their operating systemswhether they were successful or not. Internet Explorer even had its version for Mac, but with the launch of other alternatives such as Firefox or Chrome, it was gradually forgotten. When launching Windows 10 Microsoft tried to revive internet explorer calling it edgewhich was also another failure.

Finally, Edge moved to the Chromium engine, very similar to Google Chrome, although it has improved a lot, it has not had a great adoption like that of the Google browser. Even so, it has a not insignificant third position after Google Chrome and Safari, with almost 5% usage fee.

Microsoft remains among the world’s largest companies

Despite these 10 failures that have involved a large capital investment, Microsoft remains among the most valued companies in the world, among which are also Apple or Amazon. Let’s not forget that, despite these failures, Microsoft offers products such as Windows 10 or Microsoft Office that have been very well received by users.

It also offers successful hardware products, despite other flops like the Surface Duoalready has 8 generations of its Surface Pro convertible PC, which has also come out with a few more models.

Be that as it may, the company has managed to reinvent itself until reaching a privileged position in the ranking of the largest companies in the world, with a wide catalog of products and services which is also adapting and innovating to make them even more profitable.

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