This month I celebrate 100 months of working at Microsoft so I thought it might be interesting for me to look back and see what's happened during my time here. I am sure I will have missed a few important events, but these are the ones that came to mind as the most important for a number of reasons. The numerically gifted amongst you might realise that September 2001 to Feb 2014 is more than 100 months ... that cost I had a 48 month 'time on the outside' between 2009 and 2013.
MSN @ Online Communities (2000) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Communities
Although not strictly part of my service, my first role with Microsoft was at MSN in London. My memories of this time include working with some great people, helping co-ordinate the MSN webpages for the Year 2000 Olympics and organising a competition to give away a Porsche to coincide with the release of Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Porsche_Unleashed). At the time, chat rooms and communities were very popular but like many technologies, it was used for both good and bad and in the end they were shut down. Three years later, the concept of a community or network of people was brought to life in a different way by a Mark Zuckerburg.
Windows Media Center (2001) -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center
The early part of my time at Microsoft, saw the launch of an operating system that also included a specific TV/entertainment interface. Windows Media Center was launched and a number of the OEMs came out with hardware of varying sizes, shapes and noise levels. For a few years, one of these boxes sat underneath my TV at home and recorded my TV so that I didn't need to watch anything live. Keyword search was one of the great features of this product, allowing me to record any programmes with the word 'home automation' in the title or description. It also worked with my videos and pictures and integrated into the home automation system I had at the time, effectively turning my dumb TV into a smart TV. Years later Apple brought the Apple TV in 2007, SmartTVs came out with Netflix and 5 On Demand installed and I purchased a Humax DVR to record TV .... and it still doesn't search the tv listings as well as my media center did.
Xbox (2001, 2005, 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox#Xbox
During my time at MSN, I remember seeing a 'computer' in the office that was shaped like an X, not too dissimilar to this mockup here http://danielprimed.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xbox-silver1.jpg. If I remember correctly, that turned to be an initial concept for the Xbox that released the following year in 2001. Microsoft entered the console market at the end of 2001 to replace Sega who had left at the beginning of the year. Over the years, the Xbox has got quieter and it's interesting to look over the years at the interface to see how it has changed over time from something very Xbox Branded and simple (http://www.gamedynamo.com/images/galleries/photo/1768/xbox-10-year-anniversary-original-dashboard.jpg) to the 'blades', then to the 'cards' and most recently the 'tiles'. Xbox started out its life as brand sepereated from Microsoft, for good reason, but over the years it has slowly been integrated into the other platforms, presumable as users want a more joined up experience.
Smartphones (2002) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Smartphone#Windows_Mobile_2003
In 2002, working on the move involved either a Blackberry for email or something like an IPAQ (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ipaq&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=ipaq&sc=8-4&sp=-1&sk=). In 2002, my manager at the time came to me and mentioned that we were working on a phone operating system. He handed me a device and said I could play with it over the weekend but not to show anyone or lose it as it was one of only a few in existence. Later on that year, we launch the Microsoft Smartphone into the market with the 'Canary' device through Orange, shortly followed by a number of other devices from different vendors and operators of different shapes and sizes. I found myself talking to people at work about 'candy bars' and 'clam shells' which it turns out were different form factors. The interface even at that point had a start button and developed overtime into the Windows Phone operating system that we know now. Five years on from Microsoft Smartphone 2002 launching, the iPhone was invented and smartphones started to become mainstream (although some might say feature phones are still very popular).
Tablets (2002) -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC
I joined Microsoft one month before the launch of Windows XP, a system that will go end-of-life in April 2014. In the end there were many editions of Windows XP including one of them that was specifically designed for a new type of form factor/device that had a screen you could touch (with a special pen at the time) and that you could essentially write on. The Tablet (PC) was born, although Microsoft had tried this before, and suddenly I started to see people in meeting tapping at their screens rather than their keyboards. 8 years later in 2010 the Apple iPad starts off a new era of computing on tablets.
Exchange 2000 IM and Live Communications Server 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Lync_Server
One of my first roles at Microsoft was working in the Outlook support team (and at some point with the Exchange team) and as part of that I got to know the different elements of Exchange. One of the bits that intrigued me the most was Exchange IM (the instant messaging client that came with Exchange) that three years later become Live Communications Server 2003. My relationship with the product. that would eventually become Lync, started in 2003 when I was caught by a collegue installing LCS 2003 which immediately meant I became the 'expert'. For almost 6 years I followed LCS/OCS through my career, at one point fulfilling my dream of becoming the product manager for the product that I had just 'installed to see what it was' back in 2003. During that time we acquired Placeware (LiveMeeting) and developed the Microsoft Roundtable. It's great to see this product go from an install option in Exchange 2000 to a $1billion+ business with Lync 2013.
Small Business Server (1997) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Small_Business_Server
I didn't join at the very start of this products life, I think I got introduced to the product in 2003 with 'Bobcat'. For quite some time it had been obvious that selling Exchange to small business wasn't going to work because of the price and therefore Small Business Server was around to suit. This enabled small business for a relatively small price to access pretty much the same technology as a large organisation. I even managed to run Small Business Server 2003 at home for my family email until I finally moved it onto Hosted Exchange. Years later, in 2009, Microsoft launched BPOS (hosted Exchange etc) into the UK, just as I was leaving Microsoft. I returned four years later in 2013 to see Microsoft transformed into a cloud company with Office365, with yet another $1 billion business that previously had not existed.
Spot watch (2004) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Personal_Objects_Technology
The smartwatch isn't new, it's been done before. Technology was different at the time and perhaps the product was a little before its time but I remember watching a video about the Spot Watch at a Microsoft internal event and thinking to myself 'I want one of those'. The SPOT watch never made it to the UK, although I constantly badgered the product manager in Redmond, but it looks like the SmartWatch might finally be ready for primetime now with products like Pebble and Samsung Gear Watch. Take a look at the video at http://vimeo.com/34686820 which is similar to the video I saw at the Microsoft event. Although the delivery method has changed, there is enough in common between the scenarios in this video and what some of the watches are trying to do now.... in fact its very similar to what people use their phones for today.
MapPoint Location Services (approx. 2004) -http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676098.aspx
At the time, GPS chips were not yet in phones and therefore you needed to GPS enable a device with a specific card, in my case a compact flash device/sleeve for my iPAQ. However, in a 'dark corner' of Microsoft I met someone in the MapPoint team who said there was another way and that location services should be available to everyone without the need for specific cards. The product that was launched was MapPoint location Services and it could be used to track peoples location using just their SIM card (it worked in conjunction with the operators hardware at the time). Even then, the desire to track peoples location for safety reasons was a requirement and its took until 2009 for Google to bring out Latitude (they had something called Dodgeball). By this time, GPS in phones was far more common, and along with Find My Friends of iPhone, people are now able to keep an eye on loved ones. MapPoint Location Services is long gone (I believe) but why has no-one else come up with a similar service that doesn't require people to have a smartphone.
What next?
Well that's the ultimate question really. To try and predict the next 100 months of Microsoft for me is a near impossible tasks as one simply cant know what is going to be important to people in the future. If I was to make a guess and/or a few wishes then I would expect us to see the mobile, tablet, console, computer and maybe even the TV all show our 'experience' in the same way, tailored to the shape of the device. Secondly, combing the Windows stores for apps and games across all these platforms is an obvious next step as well as making the interfaces look the same (which is already happening). The next area I see developing would be the cloud, as we see more and more traditional applications become 'cloud' from Exchange Online to SQL Online. Windows Azure, already a billion dollar business, will become more a part of our 'partners' toolbox and I can see the information gathered through services like Bing, Xbox, Office365 and Outlook.com combined with the computing power of Azure and machine learning will be put to 'good use' to improve our interaction with technology.
One thing I think is sure. Reflecting on a lot of the software that has come out of Microsoft in the last 100 months I have worked here, it looks like the next 100 will be exciting.
With Satya as CEO and Bill Gates returning to focus on technology, I couldn't think of a better place to be as it all unfolds!