I have had this conversation with some friends and wanted to note it down. Because every time a new product category or a feature/service gets announced, the same conversation happens: Microsoft did something similar in the past.
The most recent example of this was in the area of VR/AR with the Oculus Quest and Vision Pro (since those two are the most talked about). Back in 2016, Microsoft introduced to us the HoloLens. This was the ‘new’ way of doing augmented reality, they even introduced the shared experiences where two people can be wearing their own HoloLens but be looking and working on the same model in 3D space. It was amazing at the time, and still is! The issue is that it went a bit unnoticed. Why? The price of $3000 at the time, the fact that it was intended for ‘developers’ only, or just that the world wasn’t ready.
When you look at that story, the same can be said for many of Microsoft’s products before hand:
- Smart TV – MSN TV both a service and hardware that was introduced on 1996, it basically made the bridge between the TV and the internet at the time. Few years later we got smart set-tops like TiVo (1999), then AppleTV came out on 2007, and the last of the bunch AndroidTV which was introduced on 2014.
- Smart Phones – Windows Mobile started making its round in 2000 with full OS experience in the so-called PocketPC. While Palm and Blackberry were also around the same time, it was not a ‘full-OS’ experience. Then the world changed in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone by Apple.
- Touchscreen Computers – This can be debated, but Tablet PCs were a thing back in 2001 with Windows XP even having a dedicated version: Windows XP Tablet PC which converted regular laptops to touchscreen tablets (with the needed hardware). Fast-forward a few years and on 2010 the iPad was introduced and became the de-facto touchscreen computers format.
- Smart Watch – Microsoft had a nifty idea back in 2004 called S.P.O.T. (Smart Personal Objects Technology) and based on that idea a connected watch (by Fossil nonetheless) was introduced that will get basic info like weather updates, news, stocks, etc. Then came things like the Pebble on 2013 and the Apple Watch on 2015.
- In-Car Infotainment – Car manufactures never cared too much about this part, so back in 2007 the crazy idea came to Ford to handle over the infotainment of the car to Microsoft with a product called Ford SYNC. Basically ran a small Windows Embedded OS and mostly lets the driver use voice to control features. Then on 2014 we were introduced to Apple’s solution: CarPlay and its colleague on 2015: Android Auto. Although these were not embedded OS (they ran on the user’s phone), they still took over the infotainment of the car.
- Music Subscription – Who remember the Zune? If you do, you probably know about the ZunePass. Launched in 2012 alongside the device, it basically allowed for the user to play any of their choosing. Although technically we already had services like Pandora that launched publicly in 2005, those services didn’t allow the user to go to a specific song. The newer services include Spotify (2010), Tidal (2014) and Apple Music (2015)
In conclusion, my belief has been for a while that Microsoft has been in the forefront of new technologies but they just aren’t align with the current times. They needed faster and better internet access for much of their innovations, but after their offerings ‘fail’ they have not look back at them to try again. In short, Microsoft has been ahead of their time.
