12 pictures to understand Microsoft's 40 years

Last weekend (April 4), Microsoft quietly ushered in its 40th birthday. As one of the world's most well-known technology companies, Microsoft has left us with too many memories. It shaped the personal computer industry, participated in the Internet wave, and is working hard to transform to meet the cloud computing and mobile era. 12 pictures show you Microsoft's 40 years.

1. Microsoft is born

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(Paul Allen and Bill Gates)

On April 4, 1975, 19-year-old Bill Gates and high school classmate Paul Allen founded Microsoft in a hotel room in Albuquerque. The company was originally named "Micro-Soft" and later changed to "Microsoft".

2. MS-DOS

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MS-DOC stands for "MicroSoft Disk Operating System" and is the oldest of Microsoft's DOS operating system family. In 1981, Microsoft successfully made MS-DOC the most commonly used operating system for IBM PCs and compatible computers. This laid the early foundation for Microsoft to eventually become the world's leading supplier of personal computer operating systems.

3. Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems launched by Microsoft after MS-DOS. Version 1.0 was released in 1985, but it was not a success. In 1990, Microsoft launched Windows 3.0, which became an instant success and marked the beginning of Microsoft's monopoly in operating systems. However, in 1994, Apple sued Microsoft for infringement, which led to the famous "Look and Feel" lawsuit.

4. Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is an office software suite developed by Microsoft in 1989. Initially, Office did not run on the Windows platform, but on Apple's Macintosh platform. Microsoft Office 3.0, launched in 1993, became the first version of Office for the Microsoft Windows platform.

5. IPO

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(From left to right: Microsoft CFO Frank Gaudet, Shelly, Goldman Sachs' Malk Rohm, Bill Gates)

On March 13, 1986, Microsoft was listed on NASDAQ. The market value of Microsoft jumped to 502 million US dollars, and 4 billionaires and 12,000 millionaires were born. Among them, Bill Gates, the founder and CEO of Microsoft, was worth 234 million US dollars at that time.

6. Browser Wars with Netscape

(Left: Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale Right: Bill Gates)

On October 13, 1994, Netscape launched the Navigator browser. The browser was so popular that Netscape, which had been established for less than 16 months, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. A year later, in December 1995, Microsoft released the IE (Internet Explorer) browser and bundled it with its own operating system for free. This move led to a rapid increase in IE's market share, surpassing Navigator.

After that, Netscape filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding Microsoft's sales of IE browsers, claiming that Microsoft used its monopoly in the operating system market to bundle sales of IE browsers, which was suspected of violating the principle of fair competition. However, the lawsuit was eventually dropped. On November 24, 1998, America Online (AOL) acquired Netscape for $4.2 billion, and then AOL disbanded the Netscape department and stopped developing browsers.

7. Invest in Apple

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On August 6, 1997, Microsoft announced that it would invest $150 million in Apple, which was in trouble. It was this $150 million in financial assistance that gave Apple a chance to "catch its breath." After that, Apple staged a "full blood recovery" drama, and successively launched successful products and services such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. in addition to the personal computer business, becoming the world's largest technology company by market value.

8. Xbox

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Xbox is a home game console developed by Microsoft in 2001. Compared with the same generation Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, Xbox has the most powerful performance. Since then, Microsoft has successively launched Xbox 360 and Xbox One. On September 29, 2014, Xbox One was officially launched in mainland China, becoming the first game console officially launched in the market after the ban on game consoles in China for many years was lifted.

9. Acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business

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On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Nokia's mobile phone manufacturing, equipment and services business, Lumia and Asha brands, and the licensing of a large number of patent portfolios for US$7.2 billion. On April 25, 2014, the acquisition was announced to be completed, and Nokia's equipment and services business was officially renamed "Microsoft Mobile".

10. Windows 10

On October 1, 2014, Microsoft announced the next-generation operating system Windows 10. Windows 10 covers Windows devices of all sizes and categories, and can run on almost all hardware such as microcomputers, mobile phones, tablets, two-in-one devices, desktop computers and servers. It is hailed as the biggest change in the history of Windows.

On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced that users of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 can upgrade to the latest operating system Windows 10 for free within 2015. Users in mainland China can download Windows 10 and upgrade for free through 360 Security Software.

11. Bill Gates

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In 1975, Bill Gates served as the chief executive officer when he founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. In 2000, after 25 years at the helm of Microsoft, Bill Gates resigned as CEO of Microsoft and was succeeded by Steve Ballmer. However, he remained as chairman of the company and created a new position for himself: Chief Software Architect.

In June 2006, Bill Gates announced that he would switch from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, with his full-time job being the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In February 2014, Bill Gates officially resigned as chairman of Microsoft and his new position was technical advisor. At the same time, he expressed his support for the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.

In terms of personal wealth, Bill Gates ranked first on the Forbes Global Billionaires List from 1995 to 2007. In 2013, he regained the top spot on the Global Billionaires List.

12. Company Logo

In the past 40 years, Microsoft has updated its corporate logo five times. The *** logo was released on August 23, 2012. Compared with the previous logo, Microsoft added blue, red, green and yellow before the word "Microsoft", representing Windows, Office, Xbox and Bing respectively. The fourth logo was the longest used by Microsoft, from 1987 to 2012, for 25 years.