Rest in peace, Microsoft PC peripherals. Goodnight endlessly, Microsoft FacetWinder. Farewell, SPOT Watch.
You’ve most likely heard of the Google Graveyard, the gathering of apps, companies and merchandise that Google shut down earlier than their time. But like every massive firm, Microsoft additionally tried and did not make sure merchandise work. In gentle of Microsoft’s decision to discontinue PC peripherals just like the Microsoft Sculpt Desktop Keyboard, let’s have a look at a number of the merchandise that litter the Microsoft {hardware} graveyard.
Microsoft RAMCard/SoftCard/SystemCard
Microsoft made RAMCards, one of many first solid-state disks, for each the Apple II in addition to the IBM PC within the early 1980s. Instead of non-volatile reminiscence like right now’s SSDs, nonetheless, these had been merely extra like reminiscence enlargement playing cards, including 16KB of RAM to an Apple II with 48KB already in place. (The model for the PC added as much as 256KB, in 64KB blocks, and shipped with RAMDrive software program which accessed the RAM as a disk.)
Google Books / InfoWorld
Microsoft additionally made the SoftCard, which was additionally attention-grabbing. It was a self-contained card with a Z80 microprocessor on it. Combining the RAMCard and SoftCard created a dual-microprocessor system for Apple with a whopping 56KB of RAM. PCs additionally obtained the SystemCard, which added the 256KB of RAM in addition to a print spooler and parallel printer interface.
Microsoft Mach 10 / Mach 20
On paper, the Microsoft Mach 10 and Mach 20 sound fairly cool. Instead of being compelled to stay with a IBM PC / PC XT’s 4.77MHz 8088 CPU, you would swap it out and substitute it with a Mach 10 card that basically upgraded it to a 9.54MHz 8088 CPU.
The Mach 20 launched in 1988 went an enormous step additional. It gave you an 8MHz 80286 CPU as an alternative: a slower chip, however two generations forward! And with a mouse port! A socket for an 80287 math coprocessor! Run Windows 2.0 in commonplace mode! There was even a Memory Plus daughterboard permitting as much as 3.5 megabytes of RAM, and one other Disk Plus daughterboard which allowed you to attach a 5.25- or 3.5-inch floppy drive. As Microsoft’s Raymond Chen points out, the Mach 20 value $495, however upgrading to a full-fledged IBM PC AT value $4,000 — an incredible deal by comparability.
Nevertheless, it flopped. InfoWorld’s in-depth review of the Mach 20 card was decidedly lukewarm. To enhance gross sales, Microsoft even made a model of OS/2 particularly for the Mach 20. According to Chen, Microsoft offered a grand whole of 11 copies. Eight of them had been returned.
Microsoft / Timex Datalink
In 1994, Timex teamed up with Microsoft to launch the Timex Datalink watch, a water-resistant (even spaceproof!) digital watch that was worn by precise astronauts… in area! The Datalink was one of many first smartwatches, with knowledge optically transferred through a blinking CRT laptop monitor to the watch through an sensor. The course of was sluggish, although (about 70 entries per minute, Wikipedia reports) and couldn’t be dynamically up to date with out line-of-sight to the monitor.
As you may think, a scrolling line of textual content throughout a digital watch wasn’t that efficient, however followers however saved the road going for years. Probably one of many issues that killed them was a shift to LCD shows, which signifies that you had to purchase a particular transmitter, too. While the Datalink made our list of the worst tech products ever, they predated Microsoft’s SPOT Watches.
Microsoft FacetWinder
The FacetWinder PC peripherals of the 1990s (together with joysticks, steering wheels, pedals, and extra) coincided with arguably the peak of the PC gaming period. You may play nearly any PC sport, affordably, together with flight and area simulators like Wing Commander and racing video games utilizing the FacetWinder Force Feedback wheel and different peripherals.
Let’s not undersell this — these peripherals had been superior. Unfortunately, Microsoft exited the market in 2003, ceding the market to different producers. Not to knock any of them down, however they by no means had fairly the cachet of the FacetWinder model.
Microsoft EasyBall
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, tech firms went via one in every of their bizarre phases, investing in child’s {hardware} for some purpose. (Remember the Intel Play QX3 microscope?)
Microsoft’s EasyBall debuted in 1997 as a big trackball for youths, bundled with Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds CD-ROM sport for $54.95. Ninety-seven Computer City shops supplied hands-on demonstrations of the software program on the “The EasyBall Adventure Zone with Freddi Fish.” The trackball even had a dual-input port for each a Microsoft Mouse and an EasyBall to be linked concurrently, so that children and adults may work collectively.
Even although the EasyBall received a lot of awards, Microsoft had basically pulled out of the trackball market by the mid-2000s. Today, Logitech and Kensington hold the trackball alive.
Microsoft SPOT Watches
Who may presumably want a linked smartwatch that would obtain climate forecasts, customized information, and Outlook calendar reminders? In 2003, this was an actual query. Today, the Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) service was manner forward of its time.
Microsoft
Technically, SPOT watches had been manufactured by Fossil and Suunto, not Microsoft, however they had been closely promoted by Microsoft as the subsequent massive factor in client electronics. They used RF communication to transmit knowledge, however the actual killer is that Microsoft needed to cost a subscription for the MSN Direct service that powered the watches with stay knowledge. That helped kill no matter demand there was for SPOT Watches, as did a greater wi-fi medium: Wi-Fi.
Microsoft Kin
The 2010 Microsoft Kin was doomed from the beginning. It was a linked smartphone for social media that lacked social media connections, and that might solely “connect” each fifteen minutes or so. The Kin’s first reviews discovered all kinds of issues, from laggy typing to poor {hardware} to an egregious Verizon smartphone plan that was a necessity to make use of the telephone correctly.
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Those critiques landed in May. By June, Microsoft had killed the Kin, after reportedly selling just 500 of them.
Microsoft Lumia / Windows Phone
In September 2013, Microsoft bought Nokia’s device business, launching Microsoft into supporting one more (finally doomed) smartphone enterprise. After former Microsoft government after which Nokia CEO Stephen Elop handed on utilizing Android, Nokia adopted the Windows Mobile working system as an alternative. Phones just like the Nokia Lumia Icon gave solution to the Microsoft Lumia 640 and others.
Mark Hachman / IDG
There are nonetheless a legion of devoted followers (together with me) who cherished the Lumia line for its incredible picture sensors, whose shade constancy outperformed competing telephones for a number of product generations. But Microsoft was unable to keep up momentum for both Lumia or a small ecosystem of failed Windows Mobile enterprise telephones. By 2019, the Windows Phone platform was officially dead.
Microsoft Zune
The short-lived Microsoft Zune digital music participant started in 2006 and at last led to 2009, when Microsoft stopped producing new devices. Zune by no means made a lot headway towards the Apple iPod. Microsoft, although, gave the Zune’s companies a generous seven years extra earlier than lastly pulling the plug…for the now defunct Groove Music. Oh properly.
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The Zune, nonetheless, grew to become so satirically iconic that it even options in Microsoft’s third Guardians of the Galaxy film, the place Star-Lord’s saved music has moved from tape to digital. Microsoft embraced the development by redesigning Zune.net, which features a film clip to indicate that sure, the Zune continues to be cool.
Microsoft Band
Another product that feels now prefer it was forward of its time, the Microsoft Band smartwatch did most of the issues fashionable health bands now do, however again in 2015: GPS, UV sensing, sleep sensing, monitoring, stair monitoring through a barometer, and extra.
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But the Microsoft Band and Band 2 by no means actually had the backing of Microsoft, and the solid Microsoft Band 2 was killed only a 12 months after launch. At least Microsoft supplied refunds for anybody who had purchased one.
Microsoft Wireless {hardware}
Microsoft eked out a small lineup of wi-fi {hardware} between 2002 and 2004, together with the Wireless Base Station (MN-500) as a part of its Microsoft Broadband Networking lineup. Wikipedia reports that Microsoft was really second within the U.S. client router market throughout that point, however couldn’t make the change from 802.11b to 802.11g quick sufficient.
That’s a fast hook for a prime product, however Microsoft has by no means had an incredible dedication to {hardware} except it may be a protracted, worthwhile success.
Microsoft Kinect
Microsoft launched the Microsoft Kinect for the Xbox 360 in 2010, competing with Nintendo’s Wii with a peripheral that merely acknowledged person actions via picture recognition. Kinect proved to be a hit till the launch of the Xbox One, when Microsoft made the peripheral obligatory. Users immediately revolted, and Microsoft relented.
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Still, by then the harm was finished, and customers didn’t wish to purchase an costly console and a peripheral. Kinect help was then dumped as a backwards-compatibility feature, too, till Kinect was lastly killed in 2017.
Even although there have been some odd costs levied towards it (was the Kinect racist?) the Kinect must be acknowledged for what it will definitely gave rise to: Windows Hello and Windows Hello biometric webcams. (The Kinect also failed as a PC peripheral, too.) Facial recognition is now a part of our day by day life, and Kinect helped carry it about.
Microsoft HoloLens (?)
In January 2015, Microsoft invited the press to Redmond to launch the HoloLens, the perfect client demonstration I’ve ever seen. Participants rewired stay gentle switches with a distant assistant linked through a Skype overlay, “walked” on Mars, and performed Minecraft on a espresso desk. It was mindblowing. And PCWorld was the primary to get an uncensored hands-on with the HoloLens, too.
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Unfortunately, the HoloLens by no means went anyplace. It was with a sense of unhappiness that I wrote our HoloLens retro review in 2019, enjoying RoboRaid in a abandoned workplace after hours.
The HoloLens 2 launched as a business (?!) device, which meant that it basically disappeared from public view. Now, who is aware of? The HoloLens 3 might be dead, the HoloLens spinoff for the U.S. Army appears to be stalled, and Alex Kipman, the daddy of the HoloLens, departed Microsoft after studies of inappropriate conduct. The HoloLens won’t be formally lifeless, however it’s being fitted for a coffin regardless.
Believe it or not, that’s not all of Microsoft’s successes and failures within the {hardware} market! For much more (a speaker system? a fingerprint reader? a cordless telephone?), see our earlier story on the good, bad and ugly of Microsoft hardware.