Timeline of Microsoft

This is a timeline of Microsoft, a multinational computer technology corporation.

Big picture

Time period	Key developments at Microsoft
1975–1985	Microsoft is founded and starts out creating its first software products, such as the MS-DOS operating system.
1985–1994	Microsoft moves to Redmond, IPOs, launches Microsoft Office and its first GUI. This would lead it to dominate much of the software market and put it in conflict with Apple Inc. Until 1995, Microsoft had failed to take advantage of the rising popularity of the Internet.
1995–2000	Microsoft releases Windows 95 and Windows 98, both which become extremely popular. It expands its presence on the Internet, and it develops an overwhelming share of the desktop operating system and Internet browser market. It also goes through an antitrust lawsuit.
2000–2006	Microsoft releases Windows ME (considered to be a botched release), which is then patched up by the popular Windows XP, which retains an overwhelming share of the OS market for a long time. Microsoft also releases the Xbox, which would eventually compete with the Playstation as one of the most popular gaming devices.
2007–2011	Microsoft releases Windows Vista (which is considered to be a botched release), and then Windows 7 to fix up the botch-up. While it still retains a significant share in the desktop operating system market, it does not anticipate the smartphone revolution. Microsoft also starts losing its share of the browser market to Firefox and Google Chrome, and MSN starts losing share of the search engine market to Google. Apple, Microsoft's old nemesis, would also introduce the iPhone, which would gradually eat into the overall Microsoft share of computing devices. Bill Gates continues to have diminishing involvement over the company.
2011–2014	The desktop operating system market is collapsing, as is the market share of Windows-based programming languages among developers.[1] Some question Microsoft's future under Steve Balmer. Windows 8 is released, but it is considered to be a botched release.
2014–present	Microsoft appoints Satya Nadella as CEO, and its stock starts recovering again. Microsoft releases Windows 10, whose features help it compete with Google and Facebook to establish the strongest hold over people's digital lives.

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
1975	April 4	Company	Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft.[2]
1978	November 1	International	The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").
1980	August	Product	Microsoft signs a contract with IBM to develop an operating system for IBM's first personal computer. This, in turn, was the beginning for both the Bundling of Microsoft Windows, and Wintelism, as IBM personal computers and Intel were also bundled with each other.
1981	July 27	Product	Microsoft buys the rights for QDOS from Seattle Computer Products (without telling SCP that it had a lucrative contract with IBM). This would later become MS-DOS.[3]
1981	August 12	Company	IBM announces the release of the IBM Personal Computer, which becomes the dominant personal computer. As DOS was the only operating system available on the PC when it was introduced in New York City, this paves way to the future domination by the MS-DOS operating system. [4] [5]
1982	April	International	Microsoft formally launches its International Division and sets up subsidiaries in Europe and elsewhere, finding local agents to handle its business interests [5]
1983	January	Products	Compaq releases its first PC-compatible machine with IBM compatible clones, which hurt IBM but helped Microsoft (as it had to license DOS from Microsoft), but any application developed to run on the PC could still run on Compaq machines. [5]
1983	January 26	Competition	Lotus Software releases Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program that becomes the IBM PC's first killer application, and which established the spreadsheet standard for the PC. By the late 1980s, it would eventually lose out to Microsoft Excel. [5]
1983	May 30	Products	Microsoft announces Multi-Tool Word, which later becomes Microsoft Word. [5]
1984	January 24	Competition	Steve Jobs introduces the original Macintosh, the first mass-market computer with a graphical user interface. Microsoft would later adopt many of its features into Windows.[6]
1985	September	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Excel, which would compete with, and later overtake, Lotus 1-2-3. [5]
1985	November 20	Products	Microsoft launches the first version of its Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, which runs on top of MS-DOS and had a primitive GUI.[7][8]
1986	February	Company	Microsoft moves its headquarters to a suburban campus in Redmond, Washington.[7]
1986	March 13	Company	Microsoft goes public with an IPO, raising $61 million at $21 a share.[7]
1987	April 2	Products	Microsoft announces OS/2.[6]
1988	March	Competition, Legal	Apple sues Microsoft, contending that Microsoft's Windows 2.03 program violated Apple's copyrights on the Macintosh displays. [9]
1990	May 22	Products	Microsoft launches Windows 3.0.[6] It gives the user virtual memory, improved graphics, and the ability to multitask.
1990	November 19	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Office (which bundles together Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint for the first time.[10]
1991	September	Company	Microsoft creates Microsoft Research. It declares that it would support research without regard to product cycles. [11] [12]
1993	March 22	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Encarta, the first digital multimedia encyclopedia.[13]
1995	August 24	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 95, which features a new interface with a novel start button.[7] Microsoft also debutted The Microsoft Network, a search engine and web portal for a wide variety of products and services.[14]
1995	December 15	Products	Microsoft announces partnership with NBC to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC.[15]
1996	October 22	Company	Microsoft launches Expedia, an online travel company, as its first Internet property.[16]
1996	May	Products	Microsoft launches the Internet Gaming Zone, which would later become the MSN Gaming Zone.[17]
1997	August 6	Competition, Partnerships	Apple Inc announces that it will enter in a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft releases Microsoft Office for Macintosh, ships Internet Explorer as the default browser for the Macintosh, and invests $150 million in Apple.[18]
1998	June 25	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 98.[13] It includes support for USB devices, back and forward navigation buttons, the address bar in Windows Explorer, and the Windows Driver Model.
1998		International	Microsoft launches its Indian headquarters, which becomes its second-largest after its US headquarters.[19]
1998	May 18	Legal	United States v. Microsoft Corp., an Antitrust trial, begins against Microsoft, with the US Department of Justice suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software (for reasons including bundling Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows and requiring personal computer manufacturers to agree to adopt a uniform "boot-up" or "first screen" sequence specified by Microsoft).[20]
1999	July 22	Products	Microsoft releases MSN Messenger, an IM client.[21]
2000	January 13	Team	Bill Gates hands over his CEO position to Steve Ballmer.[22]
2000	September 14	Product	Microsoft releases Windows ME.[13] It has improved support for digital media.
2001	May	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Ensemble Studios.[23]
2001	October 25	Products	Microsoft releases Windows XP.[13]
2001	November 15	Products	Microsoft launches the first Xbox.[13]
2002	February 13	Products	Microsoft launches the .NET initiative, which creates an entirely new API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language C#.[13]
2002	November 1	Legal	The Department of Justice reaches an agreement with Microsoft to settle the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case. The proposed settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and appoint a panel of three people who will have full access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years in order to ensure compliance. [24]
2003	June 23	Products	Microsoft announces Windows Mobile.[13]
2006	May 14	Company	Microsoft launches adCenter, an online advertising service that provides pay per click advertising. Until then, all the ads displayed on the MSN search engine were supplied by Overture (and later Yahoo!).[25]
2007	January 30	Product	Microsoft releases Windows Vista to the general public.[26] and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website.[27]
2008	June	Team	Bill Gates retires as chief software architect and devotes more of his time to philanthropy.[7]
2008	September 2	Competition	Google launches Google Chrome, a browser that would cut into the web browser operating share of Internet Explorer.[28]
2009	October 22	Products	Microsoft launches Windows 7 to the general public.[29]
2009	May 28	Products	Microsoft unveils Microsoft Bing, a search engine to replace MSN.[30]
2010	February	Products	Microsoft launches Microsoft Azure, its foray into cloud computing.[31]
2010	March	Competition	Google lifts censorship on issues sensitive to the Chinese government, and is blocked by China, allowing the way for domination by alternative search engines, including Baidu.[32]
2010	November	Products	Microsoft announces Windows Phone, a family of mobile operating systems as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile.[33]
2011	May 10	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion.[34]
2012	October 26	Products	Microsoft launches Microsoft Surface, a series of Windows-based personal computing devices designed and manufactured by Microsoft under its hardware division.[35]
2013	September	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Nokia in an attempt to expand its presence in mobile.[36]
2013	December 13	Competition	Valve announces SteamOS, an operating system to compete with Windows on one of Windows' last remaining advantages - gaming.[37]
2014	February 4	Team	Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft.[38]
2014	April	Products	Microsoft announces Cortana (software), an intelligent personal assistant.[39]
2014	September	Company	Microsoft reassigns half of its staff in Microsoft Research to a new group called MSR NeXT, to focus on products with greater impact to the company rather than pure research. [40]
2015	July 29	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 10 - what it describes as its "last operating system" - and which acts as an "universal" application architecture across multiple Microsoft product families.[41]
2015	September 23	International	Microsoft announces partnership with Baidu, making Baidu the default homepage for users of its Microsoft Edge browser in China, and which introduces Baidu search applications to Windows 10.[42]
2015	November 19	Company	Microsoft, alongside ARM Holdings, Dell, Intel, Cisco Systems, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing.[43]
2016	February 3	Acquisitions	Microsoft announced to buy SwiftKey, a startup based out of London that makes keyboard apps for Android and iOS devices.[44]
2016	February 24	Acquisitions	Microsoft announces to buy Xamarin, a company that allows developers to build fully native apps across several platforms from a single shared code base.[45]

References

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43. Janakiram, MSV (18 April 2016). "Is Fog Computing the Next Big Thing in the Internet of Things". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
44. "Microsoft Confirms SwiftKey Acquisition (For $250M In Cash)". TechCrunch.com. February 3, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
45. Lucas Matney (February 24, 2016). "Microsoft Is Buying Mobile Cross-Platform Development Company Xamarin". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved February 24, 2016.