Top 10 Biggest Microsoft Fails

The scorn of seventh generation gamers everywhere. Despite the Xbox 360 proving a huge success, the first few years were hampered by the "Red Ring of Death." When the console started to flash three red lights on its power button, this signaled the end of the Xbox 360's lifespan. In response, Microsoft extended their warranties to three years, resulting in a massive financial loss. Robbie Bach - the dude in charge of Microsoft's Entertainment division at the time - believed the issue resulted from prioritizing the Xbox 360's appearance over functionality. Microsoft simply squeezed too much tech into a tiny box.

With Operating System/2 taking up most of Microsoft's time and attention, DOS 4.0 received much less fanfare. Developed in conjunction with IBM, the hard-drive-based Operating System garnered widespread criticism due to incompatibility with older disk formats and its $150 price tag. While anyone could pick up the DOS 4.0, IBM never stated it was often incompatible with non-IBM hardware, making the Operating System useless to certain customers. Additionally, DOS 4.0 lacked any eye-catching applications; so, there was little incentive to upgrade from the previous model. The DOS 5.0 took the improvements made by its predecessor, ironed out the problems, and proved a big hit.

With their "Get A Mac" campaign, Apple successfully coined the term "I'm a Mac." In an attempt to take the shine away from their competitor, Microsoft copied Apple's playbook and launched their own ads entitled "I'm a PC," which replaced the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld commercials. The adverts mixed everyday users with famous celebrities like Pharrell Williams and Eva Longoria, who would then described themselves as a PC. For obvious reasons, the original campaign included no mention of the Windows Vista, making the adverts came across as fairly generic, especially in contrast to Apple.

For one of the world's most powerful conglomerates, Microsoft is surprisingly naive. In 2016, Microsoft revealed Tay to the internet, an AI Twitter chatbot who would learn and adapt from her interactions with other users. In less than 24 hours, Twitter managed to totally corrupt Tay's innocence, turning the playful AI into a racist and misogynistic monstrosity. To be fair, most of the worst comments were a result of Tay just repeating what other users said, but it got so bad that Microsoft had to sanitize and cleanse her Twitter feed.

Being a browser with such a negative reputation, Microsoft eventually dropped the Internet Explorer name all-together. Launched in 2001, Internet Explorer 6 owned the majority of the market, but the browser had numerous security problems and its lackluster performance resulted in the introduction of freeware browsers like Mozilla Firefox. At one point, the United States' Computer Emergency Readiness Team actively instructed people to use any other browser besides Internet Explorer 6. While Microsoft would fix some of the biggest issues, these updates were infrequent and the company waited five years to release Internet Explorer 7.

It took less than a year for Microsoft to give Bob the "Old Yeller" treatment. Marketed as a cute new desktop for the Windows 3.1 and 95, Bob turned the interface into a digital living room, with furniture representing programs. While this could have been helpful for young children or the less-technically inclined, the $100 price tag was way too steep. As well, Bob's installation specs demanded quite a bit of juice to work, with most computers of the time falling short of the minimum requirements. With the release of Windows 95 and its improved user interface, Microsoft effectively killed their own product.

Oh, what could have been! On the Xbox 360, the Kinect was actually a runaway critical and financial success, garnering good reviews from sites like Game Informer and IGN. With the MS-owned Rare working on some Kinect titles, the motion-sensing device held a lot of promise; unfortunately, the games failed to live up to the hype conjured up by Peter Molyneux's Milo demo. The Kinect was well received until Microsoft bundled it with the Xbox One, driving up the console's launch price and killing the device's appeal. Less than 2 years later, Microsoft stopped including the Kinect with the Xbox One and eventually dropped the device completely.

As the old saying goes – timing is everything. Handheld devices are the one area Microsoft has really struggled to leave an impression, mostly because they entered the market after Apple and Android had already established dominance. With Windows owning an insignificant section of the market, App Developers have little incentive to re-work their programs for Microsoft's phones, leaving customers with less variety. In 2014, Microsoft tried to up their game by purchasing Nokia, a decision that merely resulted in a substantial financial loss for the company.

Why buy an iPod when you can have a Zune? Unfortunately for Microsoft, the opposite proved to be the case. The portable music player was a fine enough product that included a couple of cool tricks, like the Zune-to-Zune song sharing feature and FM Radio, but Microsoft waited too long to enter the market. By the time 2006 rolled around, the iPod had already been available for five years and the Zune simply did not have the tools required to compete against Apple. Also, for the first year, the Zune wasn't on the market in the EU, while American units reportedly wouldn't work in that region.

For every Windows XP, there is a Vista or a Windows ME. Among poorly received Operating Systems, none fell as far as Windows 8. Microsoft's ambition got the best of them with the launch of this wannabe Android system. The user interface was changed completely from the successful Windows 7, with MS going as far as to remove classic features like Media Center and Desktop Gadgets. Despite a constant demand by customers, Microsoft waited a year before finally bringing back the start button. Realizing their error, Microsoft offered a free upgrade to Windows 10, which wasn’t free of problems either - case in point: the paused October 2018 update that deleted data-filled folders and crashed systems that didn’t have enough storage space.