Microsoft probably celebrated its greatest success with the Windows operating system. However, not everything that the company has developed was received by users. One product is remembered to this day as Microsoft’s biggest failure.
Microsoft is one of those brands that (almost) everyone has probably heard of. The Windows operating system really gets the development of computers going. Suddenly everyone would like to own such a gray box, even if many have not (yet) the faintest idea what can be done with it. That’s why it sounds incredible what a Microsoft developer has confessed in a blog post. A specially developed software for the Mach 20 is said to have only been sold three times. We took a closer look at this #BigFail.
Microsoft’s annual sales figures have long been in the three-digit billion range. Against this background, Microsoft software that is said to have only been sold three times sounds like an encounter with the Yeti – extremely unbelievable. According to Microsoft employee Raymond Chen However, that is exactly what happened when the company developed special software for an expansion card in the mid-1980s.
Expansion card speeds up the PC
An expansion card can best be compared to a memory card for smartphones. But in the early days of the computer industry we are talking about a large component that can be plugged into the motherboard, the brain of the computer. At that time, such an expansion card was used to increase the working memory and increase the speed of the computer. At the same time, the card has additional slots, for example for a mouse. Because such slots were, then as now, in short supply.
Microsoft sees good business in expansion cards. However, the company could have been warned. A first prototype with the name Mach 10 already flopped mightily. But that doesn’t stop the company around founder Bill Gates from producing the successor Mach 20 together with the Portable Computer Support Group; even faster, even more RAM and even more slots. All of this at the then bargain price of just under 500 US dollars. For comparison: A new computer back then cost around 4,000 US dollars.
Also read: How did Microsoft come about? The history of the technology giant
Technical development beats marketing
According to Microsoft developer Raymond Chen, the price was the decisive factor in throwing the Mach 20 onto the market. In addition, a small excursion into accounting and tax law.
At that time, computers were considered office machines in the USA. These can be written off for tax purposes over a period of seven years. However, the technical development of PCs is progressing faster than accountants can account for. That’s why the seven-year rule is suddenly a problem. The old computer may no longer be up-to-date after two or three years, but it is still in the accounting books and has not yet been completely written off. This is where Microsoft comes in with its Mach 20 expansion card. Instead of replacing the old PC with an expensive new computer, just get the old darling up and running again with the Mach 20. That’s the marketing theory.
Mach 20 flops across the board
The customers don’t go along with that, however. Already the sale of the hardware, i.e. the Mach 20 itself, is more than sluggish. Apparently, customers didn’t quite understand the thinking behind Microsoft’s marketing department. Microsoft then tries to lay out another lure using software specially developed for the Mach 20. But even OS/2, as the operating system for the expansion card is called, does not make the bell at the checkout ring any faster.
On the contrary: According to Microsoft developer Raymond Chen, eleven people bought the software. However, because this did not work smoothly, eight buyers sent back OS/2 for the Mach 20. It is not known whether the three remaining owners were happy with the software. The consequences of this mega flop at Microsoft also remain a mystery.
Ultimately, the expansion card and the associated software came onto the market at a time when the technical development of new computer systems was really gaining momentum. The increasing supply causes prices to fall. Simple formula: The Mach 20 very quickly appears superfluous in this environment. Overall, this story didn’t hurt Microsoft either, so it remains a small side note. Still, the OS/2 operating system for the Mach 20 is definitely one of Microsoft’s biggest flops, with just three sales.