Surprisingly, but a fact: most Russian-speaking PC users are better aware of the events in the American history of Microsoft (at least within its "mythological" part from the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley"), although the history of Microsoft in Russia is no less fascinating, and its first significant event happened way back in 1987.
It was then that the Dialog JV, still a Soviet commercial enterprise, connected its business with Microsoft, becoming its distributor. And the first big project implemented in Russia was the localization of MS-DOS 4.01, the most advanced Microsoft product at that time, equipped with the DOS Shell graphical shell.
Today, when all the software products of large companies freely communicate with us in their native language, the localization of one of them does not seem to be something significant, but in 1987 everything was completely different.
MS-DOS in Russian
Today, when all the software products of large companies freely communicate with us in their native language, the localization of one of them does not seem like something significant, but in 1987 everything was completely different. All programs, with the exception of two or three developed in Russia, were in English and "gibberish".
At that time, few people imagined what tasks should be solved during the first full-fledged Russian localization (the word itself was new). So, for example, in addition to translating and compiling glossaries, a new encoding and keyboard layouts were created for the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian languages. At the same time, the fate of the letter “ё” and a number of other questions that were not obvious at first glance were decided. A large part of the decisions made during that first localization is still used today.
Of course, the project turned out to be extremely complex and lengthy, largely due to the fact that its participants did not have modern tools for communication and group work.
Suffice it to say that Microsoft's head of localization, Paul Robeson, was specially transferred from the office in Redmond (USA) to the Microsoft office in Germany in order to be able to meet with the working group in Russia as often as possible.
It wasn’t until 1989 that the Russian team had a cutting-edge communication tool at the time: a modem that allowed them to transfer a binary file divided into small fragments in a few hours.
And in 1990, the work was completed, and Bill Gates himself came to Russia to present the Russian version of MS-DOS 4.01. Around the same time, the localization of Works for MS-DOS began, a little later Windows 3.0 and Excel 4.0 were localized, but the release of MS-DOS in Russian will forever remain the starting point of Microsoft's history in Russia.
Now Microsoft offices are open in more than 70 cities of Russia. Most employees are engaged in supporting Russian partner companies
Ekaterina Lazhintseva has been working in the Russian office of Microsoft since 1993 - before that she was an employee of the Dialog joint venture. Ekaterina currently holds the position of Senior Site Manager for MSDN & TechNet in Russia and Eastern Europe, but early in her career at Microsoft, her main task was to localize the company's software products.
“In 1993, everything seemed new and amazing. Almost everything we did, we did first, but it did not scare, but on the contrary, it became a source of enthusiasm and inspiration. The same, in principle, can be said about all IT companies that worked in Russia in those years. Just a few days after moving to Microsoft, I went to Ireland for 2 months to work on the localization of Works. At that time, a business trip abroad in itself was a big event, and even more so such a long one. However, at that time personal presence was a necessary condition for effective work with foreign colleagues. All those communication tools that we use today became available a little later. I remember, for example, when leaving for a long business trip abroad, you had to inform the IT department so that they changed the server settings so that you could receive work mail while abroad. Today we can work from anywhere. My manager lives in England, the members of our working group live in other countries with different time zones. And this does not affect the quality of our joint work. This seems to be a great example of how innovation has changed the world for the better over the past 20 years.
Microsoft business in Russia
Following the first sales and deliveries of Microsoft software to Russia, the company's first office was opened in Moscow on Staraya Basmannaya, headed by Robert Clough, the future head of Microsoft in Eastern Europe. At first, in addition to Robert, only two people worked in the office, converted from a residential apartment. However, this did not prevent us from completing the first financial year of 1993-1994 with a profit, presenting several products that became very popular at once (Windows 3.1, Microsoft Word 2.0 and Microsoft Excel 4.0) and opening a free telephone technical support service for Russian Microsoft users. At the same time, the first Microsoft conference for Russian developers DevCon’94 was held.
Until the end of the 90s, many other memorable events took place: Microsoft representatives began work in Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, in southern Russia and Siberia, the first Microsoft regional office opened in St. Petersburg, many new products were presented, such as Windows 95, Office for Windows 95, Windows 98, Office 2000, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, Office XP, Windows XP, the first Russian version of Microsoft Project 2002. However, this is a story that is remembered not only by old-timers, but by almost all computer users over 30.
Today Microsoft operates in more than 70 Russian cities. The number of Russian partner companies of Microsoft has exceeded 10,000. This is not surprising, because it is the partner companies that form the basis of Microsoft's business in Russia.
Evgeny Voronin has been working with Microsoft partners since 1994. He currently holds the position of Head of Partner Strategy at Microsoft in Russia and is the main specialist in matters of interaction with partners. If he wanted, he could joke about the complete lack of career growth, because more than 20 years ago he did the same thing: he developed a partner network and was the main, or rather, the only employee working in this direction.
–The Russian office of Microsoft in 1994 was a bit like a startup. However, then the entire IT business in Russia felt at the start. There were few products, specialists, tools ... There were not many things that seem to be mandatory for doing business today, and yet all market participants experienced purely start-up optimism, felt that the world was changing and they were directly involved in this. And so it was: the Russian market, and the IT industry itself, grew rapidly and offered us new opportunities. Suffice it to recall the release of Windows 95, the operating system with which the mass use of windowed interfaces began.
However, Microsoft in 1994 already had what most of our Russian partners had only to create: streamlined business processes, distribution of responsibilities, strategy and corporate culture. This made a very strong impression: they really knew how an IT company should work. Each of us clearly saw our tasks and areas of responsibility, while all significant decisions were made collectively, and not descended "from above" - we ourselves determined the direction of our work.
Over the years, technology has changed the world even more than we could have imagined - now it is present in all areas of our lives. The Russian IT market has formed and continues to develop, and I am pleased to observe the success of our partners, many of whom have become known not only in Russia, but also in the world.
Alexander Lvov started working in the Russian office of Microsoft in the year of the release of Windows 95.
“I remember the joke about Microsoft selling Windows 95 discs like Madonna discs. But that's how it was: in America people lined up, in Russia we saw great interest from partners and users. At the same time, not everyone understood how IT can improve business efficiency - my task was to demonstrate optimal scenarios for using Microsoft software products as part of technical sales support. It was really interesting, because at that time not only new IT tools appeared, but business processes themselves arose and formed in parallel.
Coming to the Russian office of Microsoft, you immediately felt that it was part of a global corporation that united many people in different countries. Although there was no Skype, Lync or Office with the ability to co-edit documents, we actively used those remote communication tools that were available, and most importantly, we met in person. The office was constantly attended by foreign employees. Often the meetings were held in the format of conferences and seminars dedicated to new products or calendar events of the business plan. I remember this with pleasure and still communicate with foreign colleagues whom I met then.
There was a sense of change in the 1990s, and as far as IT is concerned, it was fully justified. It's nice to think that this is our merit.
Nowadays, you will not surprise anyone with a computer. Almost every home has this device, or even more than one. The idea of "a computer on every table, in every home", expressed by Bill Gates, one of the founders of Microsoft, is being actively implemented. But without the products of this company, all this could not have happened. Now Microsoft is recognized as a transnational company, a leader in the field of creating software for various computing equipment, and 40 years ago everything was just beginning.
Two bosom friends who love programming Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975 founded a company with the sonorous name Micro-Soft(it was in this style that the name was used until November 1979). The prerequisites for this event were as follows: the enterprising Allen, who had abandoned his studies at the University of Washington early and worked at Honeywell Corporation, read about the new product of the electronics manufacturer MITS - the Altair 8800 computer.
The invention so impressed the young man that he gave the idea to a friend to create a BASIC language interpreter for this device. The no less savvy Bill immediately contacted MITS, announcing that he was ready to demonstrate a real version of the interpreter for the newly appeared device. Such a statement was received with interest, The children were asked to make a presentation.
Friends did not expect such a turn of events, because they did not even have a program or the device itself. In order not to lose face, it was necessary to urgently mobilize all forces. It took only 8 weeks to create a worthy option with ample opportunities, ingenious potential. The MITS company was impressed with the development, the guys received their first contract. Inspired friends cut off ties with Boston (Paul quit his job, and Bill left his studies at Harvard), moved to Albuquerque (New Mexico), where Micro-Soft was founded.
The path to recognition
The specifics of the business is such that investments at the initial stage were not required. But the turnover for an incomplete year of work exceeded 16 thousand dollars. This is despite the fact that the company, roughly speaking, did not produce anything, and only 3 people worked in it. The start turned out to be quite good, encouraging to further actions.
Inspired by the results, as well as due to their determination, talent, ability to work fruitfully, to achieve high performance indicators, the young guys quickly achieved prosperity. Bill Gates deserves special attention, the undoubted leader, persistent and brilliant. The ability to generate ideas and quickly implement them has brought many fruits of successful activity.
In 1978, the company already opens its first representative office abroad. The choice, of course, fell on Japan - a country with great potential for the development of electronics.
In 1979 the company had 13 employees. The solution of current tasks required the expansion of staff, and the capabilities of the region of deployment did not allow attracting highly qualified specialists. The move to Bellevue, Washington turned out to be a good way out.
Human resource management has always been a top priority for the company. This concerns support for existing specialists, attracting new ones, and educating the next generation. Employees are provided with advanced social services. package: insurance, maintenance, extended vacation, training, the possibility of remote work, etc. Microsoft spends a lot of money on personnel, but investing in "brains" has always been considered a priority here. The modern corporation has about 121 thousand people, and is considered one of the most sought-after employers.
The company quickly developed its product line, became a leader due to the uniqueness and convenience of the software created. The development of the MS-DOS operating system, the Windows graphical interface is recognized as the leading step in the evolution in the field of information technology. Microsoft initiated a real technological takeoff.
The history of the company's development remembers more than 2 dozen different Windows, classified according to their functional features into different subgroups (families). Many are familiar with Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 versions of this OS.
Each new development complemented and improved the existing software. Often analogues were left far behind, not having time to catch up with the ingenious creation of Microsoft.
You can watch the Windows success story in the video.
Competitive fight
The disagreements between the partners, which had been accumulating for several years, reached their climax in 1983. Paul Allen left the corporation, selling his stake at a price of $ 10 apiece, which made him one of the richest people in the world. The partner is tired of enduring the grip of Bill, who does not let a single question out of his hands. In addition, Paul had health problems. The decision was the salvation of the "overdue" situation.
The main scandal throughout Microsoft's activities has developed with Apple. Steve Jobs accused Bill Gates of plagiarizing his ideas, embodied in 1984. The claims are not groundless, but they have many nuances. In 1988, the first trial took place, which, due to the lack of a legal framework, did not lead to anything. Nine years later, a follow-up lawsuit pushed Gates into a multi-million dollar deal ($150 million) with Jobs' company. The reconciliation contracts helped Apple improve its position, which was shaken at that time, and Microsoft to get away from the competitor's claims, remaining with its own developments. Gates himself does not deny the borrowing of ideas, but puts "bringing to perfection" software above circumstances.
In recent years, Microsoft has had to respond to lawsuits from the EU Antimonopoly Commission, as well as some competitors. According to these requirements, the corporation paid more than 1.5 billion euros. Litigation does not stop, from time to time the company has to answer for "disruption of competition", "unreasonably high fees", other obstacles to the free environment.
Microsoft these days
Microsoft has been developing several lines of business for many years. Branded products include:
- network, desktop OS;
- office line of applications for users;
- tools for working on the Internet;
- online programs, games;
- publishing house of thematic literature;
- peripheral equipment for PC.
Modern Microsoft is a large-scale corporation with an extensive network of representative offices (about 110 countries around the world). The results of Microsoft developments are used on 90% of all PCs, have high compatibility with a large number of devices, and are adapted to at least 45 languages. The giant annually invests more than $9 billion in the development of new technologies.
Microsoft's key figures - one of the founders Bill Gates, long-term general manager Steve Ballmer are considered the largest single shareholders, but have moved away from direct management. Satya Nadela has been the Executive Director since 2014. Microsoft, under his leadership, confidently holds its positions in the market, is not going to give them up.
Since November 1992, the company has its representative office in Russia. T technological showroom, as well as an extensive network of branches in the largest cities of the country, allow us to achieve high performance indicators, as well as continue moving towards our goals. The main functions of Microsoft in Russia are:
- promotion of company software;
- implementation, localization of the product line;
- increase in the partner network (sale of services, products of the company).
Microsoft net income for 2016 is 16.8 billion dollars, which is almost 4.5 billion more than a year earlier. This was due to the growth in the category of server products, cloud services, income from OS sales, and revenue from sales of tablets. But sales of smartphones "collapsed" despite the stubborn promotion of the direction.
You can see 10 interesting facts about the company in the video.
The history of Microsoft goes back to 1975. It was then that two Harvard University student friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen learned from the January issue of Popular Electronics magazine about the release of a new personal computer Altair 8800. The friends started developing a BASIC language interpreter for it and soon successfully brought their idea to life. According to the information published by them in the credits of their creation, Gates was writing executable codes, Allen was writing auxiliary codes, and Monte Davidoff wrote the mathematical library. Just a month later, Bill and Paul signed a licensing agreement with MITS, the Altair company, to use BASIC as part of their development software.
Initially, the friends intended to name their firm Allen and Gates, but they felt that such a name sounded more like a law firm. Therefore, Paul suggested the name "Micro-Soft", short for English. Microprocessors (microprocessors) and Software (software). After about a year of work at MITS, the hyphen disappeared from the name, and on November 26, 1976, a new trademark was registered with the New Mexico District Secretariat with the now familiar name "Microsoft".
Paul then became the owner of 36% of the company's shares, Bill - the remaining 64%; this is how the latter assessed his contribution to the project.
The financial turnover of the newly-fledged company for the first year of its existence amounted to $16,005. Already in 1978, the first international branch of the company opened in Japan, which until the beginning of the next decade was engaged in sales of BASIC-based software due to its huge popularity.
80s: World famous
The real success came to Microsoft in 1981 with the acquisition and refinement of the new PC-DOS operating system for the IBM brand. It was on sale at that time for $40. Personal computers rapidly gained popularity; more and more new market players appeared in this area. It is thanks to the introduction of the DOS system that the joint project of Bill and Paul turns into the undisputed leader in the operating system market. At the same time, the company simultaneously promoted other related computer products on the sales market. For example, the "mouse" manipulators invented at that time.
However, already in 1983, the paths of the founders of the company diverged, and Allen left the project.
The main reason was his unwillingness to devote his whole life to this joint activity, while Bill was ready to devote all his time to the further development of the project.
1985 was marked by the release of the most famous product - Microsoft Windows version 1.0, which was, in fact, a graphical shell for PC-DOS. In the same year, the development of a fundamentally new OS / 2 operating system for IBM computers began, which was released in 1987.
A couple of years later, in 1989, the first version of the currently most successful office product, Microsoft Office, appeared on the market, which provided a solid income for Gates' brainchild for many years.
All the same, despite the multi-billion dollar revenue, Microsoft is not the top brand in the world. A place of honor occupies ... find out in the article
90s
The rapidly growing popularity of the company is bearing fruit. So, in the first couple of weeks after the release of the 3rd version of the Windows operating system in 1990, more than 100 thousand copies of it were sold. Microsoft management quickly refocused, reprioritized, and moved the bulk of the developers to work in favor of it instead of the OS/2 project. And just a year later, Gates decided to completely abandon the further development of OS / 2 in favor of the same product, the leader of its sales.
The result was not long in coming.
As a result of a successful fight against competitors, a tough market policy and a successful advertising campaign, after 3 years, it is Windows that receives the status of the most common operating system in the world. The following years were marked by the development and release of its updated versions: 95 in 1995, when Internet Explorer became a mandatory built-in component; then 98 in 1998.
It was 1998 that became notable for the fact that Bill Gates left the post of president of Microsoft, remaining, nevertheless, to hold the post of chairman of the board of directors in it.
Even this recently created company has already changed its logo, but what about those who have been around for two hundred years? Let's see
2000s
The range of operating systems continues to expand. Windows 2000 and Millenium are released. The latter collects a lot of angry responses from users around the world due to incessant failures and installation problems. According to the public, it was one of the least successful products of the corporation.
2001 is the year of the appearance of Win XP and, in parallel, Office XP, which have become one of the most popular developments. Despite some "dampness" of the first versions, users enthusiastically accepted the new products, which later served some of them for 10 years or more.
In March 2004, Microsoft was found guilty by the European Commission of using its dominant position in the European software market. The result was a fine of €497 million and a requirement to provide third-party developers with their products in the open, so that they could freely develop compatible applications. However, the management was in no hurry to implement this decision, and already in 2006 a fine of € 280.5 million was again imposed, after which Microsoft had to reluctantly comply.
- 2007th. The appearance of the Vista version on the market almost immediately was marked by customer dissatisfaction due to its high requirements for computer resources. Apparently, the developers also assumed the simultaneous modernization of many personal computers in accordance with these modern demands. However, most users did not express solidarity with them on this issue and continued to use the so popular previous version of XP, which proved to be excellent in terms of stability and low demands.
- 2009th. Personal computers are gradually losing their leading share in favor of sales of both laptops and the increasingly popular netbooks and tablet computers. Focusing on this, Microsoft is introducing a new version of the operating system to the market - the "seven", which is designed to support most models of these types of devices, and at the same time is not particularly demanding on hardware resources.
- In 2012, the new Win 8 was released. At the same time, many buyers of computer equipment complain that when selling devices, they are also forced to purchase the software of the most famous brand. However, nothing supernova is happening: Microsoft remains true to its sales methods.
Video: becoming a corporation
Official historyMicrosoft(Microsoft) began on April 4, 1975, when two young and talented people and Paul Allen decided to open their own company. The official name of the corporation is MicrosoftCorporation. The ticker on the NASDAQ stock exchange is MSFT.
What Microsoft makes
Over its history, Microsoft has become a manufacturer software for a variety of computing devices, such as:
personal computers (PC),
various game consoles (Xbox),
pda,
mobile phones.
The most famous and popular Microsoft product in the world is the operating system.Windows.
Additional products that produce subsidiaries corporations are Xbox game consoles, Surface tablets, various accessories and peripherals: mice, keyboards and others.
The birth of the company and the first product
Bill Gates and Paul Allen read an article in January 1975 about the birth of the computer. "Altair 8800" from MITS. Friends wrote an interpreter language for him, which they called Basic, which is in fact the first product in the history of Microsoft, which did not yet exist at that time.
Already on February 1, friends signed a license agreement with the hardware manufacturer MITS that Basic would be used as part of Altair's software.
Allen & Gates or Microsoft?
Initially, friends wanted to name their company "Allen and Gates", but in the end we thought that such a name would be more suitable for a detective or law office.
After a short time, Paul Allen proposed a different name, which formed the basis of the modern Microsoft Corporation - he suggested using parts from 2 words: "microprocessor" And "software". The result was the name of the new company - Micro-soft.
The second product is MS-DOS
In 1981, an important moment happened in the history of Microsoft - the company released disk operating systemMS-DOS, which was developed in only about 1.5 months. This product is the result of a signed contract with IBM to provide a ready-made OS for computers based on the Intel8086 processor.
Paul Allen's departure
In 1983, Paul Allen left Microsoft by selling his shares. $10 each for a unit. This deal eventually made him one of the richest people in the world: in 2011, he was 57th place on the Forbes magazine list with a net worth of $13 billion.
The era of Windows and the triumph of Microsoft
The most significant and sought-after product in the history of Microsoft so far is the operating system with a graphical interface - Windows.
As a result of close cooperation withIBM On November 20, 1985, the first version of the OS was born.Windows 1.0, which glorified Bill Gates and Microsoft itself throughout the world.
"Purchases" of the corporation
In 2011, Microsoft acquired the Internet phone company SkypeLtd. The deal amounted to 8.5 billion dollars. After the end of the takeover, a division was created on the basis of Skype Limited Microsoft Skype Division, and the director of Skype Tony Bates remained its leader.
In April 2014, Microsoft entered into an acquisition deal with Nokia one of the divisions engaged in the production and maintenance of mobile phones. This deal, according to analysts, allowed Microsoft to compete in the mobile arena with . Purchase transaction amount Devices & Services amounted to 5.44 billion dollars.
In autumn 2014, Microsoft bought the Swedish company Mojang AB who is known for her game Minecraft.
What other facts from the history of Microsoft do you know?
