3 amazing facts about Microsoft that you didn’t know about 

Last year in June, tech giant Microsoft was leading the global news following their decision to put down one of the first commercially successful web browsers, Internet Explorer. Six months down the line, with the turn of the brand-new year, Microsoft was back in the news when many of its products and services including Microsoft OneDrive, Azure, Skype, Teams and Microsoft 365 were down for several hours. It looks like Microsoft enjoys dominating the news. Currently, its chances of laying off more of its employees are doing the rounds. Already, twice last year, the company has fired more than 5 percent of its workforce, which is why the latest news has triggered major criticisms worldwide. While this American multinational technology corporation that specialises in computer software, consumer electronics, and more related services continue trending for various reasons, let us focus on some of the unknown yet interesting facts about it.  

Microsoft designed the world’s first smartwatch 
We now live in the times where almost everyone, be it a school student or an office goer, wears a smartwatch. But have you ever wondered who came up with the idea of the first smartwatch and when? Well, that would be Microsoft in the year 1994. As it turns out, Microsoft collaborated with popular watchmaking company Timex and had launched the original smartwatch called Timex Datalink. The watch exhibited an LCD screen and had state-of-the-art features such as download data from a personal computer wirelessly as well as storing phone numbers in the watch’s in-built memory. Interestingly, many models of Timex Datalink were worn by NASA astronauts during several space missions. Sources have it that this smartwatch was introduced as an alternative to early Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) better known as pocket computers. But unfortunately, it never became a commercial success. 

Microsoft once rescued Apple from bankruptcy 
No, this isn’t a joke. Turns out, in 1997, Apple was on the brink of getting bankrupt when their rival Microsoft stepped up and made a whooping 150 million dollar investment in the company. This was done as part of the MacWorld Boston Conference of 1997 and was announced by the then Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. While tech enthusiasts around the world had mixed responses about this venture, later it was discovered that the step was mutually beneficial for both the companies. How? Well, for starters, Apple was forced to end an ongoing lawsuit it had against Microsoft for copying its operating system, saving Microsoft billions of legal hassles and payments. Apple didn’t have to make their own default browser and simply used Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on its first Macs.  

Microsoft Windows had a different name 
Not many know, but Microsoft’s world-renowned Operating System Windows was not really the original name. Okay, so what was it? Turns out, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wanted to call it “Interface Manager.” In fact, this name was the one that was used during the design and development of the operating system from 1981 to 1984. However, one of the members of the marketing team suggested Windows in reference to the “windows” on the computer screen that users interact with while using the operating system. Fortunately, Gates was convinced with the name and in 1985, Windows 1.0 was launched.