Microsoft looks beyond Windows

Microsoft has always looked through Windows and wanted to be apart of other things. For a software company that helped launch the Computer World as we know today, they did not stop with just the OS and soon created other Software titles or acquired other companies for themselves. But its been the beyond Windows products that has been really interesting over the years and why a Software Company chose this route.

One of the first out of the box products that I owned from Microsoft was the Timex Datalink watch. A digital watch that would send your contacts and calendar information from Microsoft Outlook, via the Monitor to your watch. It was by all means one of the first PDA devices. I just held the watch towards the screen, hit the synch button and watch the monitor spaz away as it sent my information to the watch.

Another product they came out with was a Cordless Phone and answering system. This is about the point I started to shake my head. I can't figure out why they wanted to get into the telephone business. Sure it sounded like a cool idea for us and we could use it along with our Computer, but something told me to stay away from this all together. I think it had a hefty price tag at the time as well. The phone did not take off and slowly went away with in a year or so.

That brings me to the launch of the Xbox system in November 2001 and I found myself shaking my head once again. What are they thinking here? Sony has such a huge market share, why would Microsoft even look at jumping into this? They already have people using computers with their OS and the PC games are doing really well on Windows. What possible motive could they have for trying to get into the Console business? Could this be another Phone deal that would fall apart in a year?
The Xbox in my mind did not look appealing at all and it had only one title that appeared to draw my attention. Why would I even think to leave my PC games for a new console just to play Halo? I was still an online PC gamer for the most part and I really thought this would not last. I also had other priorities, being a first time Dad and I slowly began to see my time playing games drift away from me. As my daughter began to get older, I didn't even want to play the games in front of her and let her see some of the action of those games. I also reached a point where I just stopped upgrading or buying the new PC games. The gamer in me had finally gone to sleep over the next 5 years all together.