The History of Microsoft (1990)

February 13, 1990

Microsoft and Micro Decisionware announce the Database Gateway, which integrates SQL Server and mainframe environments so that users can obtain data transparently from either or both, with standard PC applications.

February 20, 1990

Microsoft License Paks for large corporate accounts are announced. Available for each of the major applications products, Microsoft License Paks will be a new Microsoft packaged product and will be distributed through dealers. This will be a worldwide program.

March 5, 1990

Microsoft will provide TrueType outline font technology in Microsoft Windows and in OS/2 Presentation Manager 2.00. Microsoft also reports that Microsoft TrueImage will be the name for its page description language.

March 12, 1990

Nathan Myhrvold is appointed Vice President of Advanced Technology and Business Development. Myhrvold will be responsible for assessing future systems software technology and identifying new business development opportunities and will coordinate various internal and third-party research and development projects. He will report to Steve Ballmer, Vice President of Systems Software. He has been with Microsoft since 1986.

March 26, 1990

Microsoft announces the integration of voice messaging capabilities into Microsoft Mail for AppleTalk Networks. Mail is the first business application to incorporate sound recording, compression, and playback technology, developed with Farallon Computing, Inc.

March 30, 1990

WinMail, a Windows version 3.0-based mail front end, is available for internal use. WinMail allows the users to manage e-mail on a local PC with the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Previously, Microsoft employees were using Xenix e-mail.

April 2, 1990

Microsoft appoints Michael R. Hallman as president and chief operating officer, to succeed upon Jon Shirley's retirement.

April 30, 1990

Technical support will be offered to the more than 25 million users of Microsoft® MS-DOS® in the U.S. The support applies to all OEM versions of MS-DOS. Because Microsoft licenses the MS-DOS system only to OEMs rather than end users, product support has previously been the responsibility of the individual OEM. Now Microsoft will provide supplementary support.

May 22, 1990

Microsoft announces the availability of Windows 3.0 at the City Center Theater in New York, New York. Breakthroughs in computer memory management would help this version be the one that finally got momentum in third party applications being built for the Windows environment.

June 15, 1990

The Microsoft Road Show '90, "Seeing is Believing," is on the road. For the third year, products and expertise are taken to selected cities around the country and seminars are offered to end users and resellers. This show is almost entirely devoted to Microsoft® Windows® products and the graphical user interface.

July 2, 1990

The Microsoft Company Store opens. It will provide Microsoft® Press books, Microsoft software, and Microsoft Mark logo items.

July 24, 1990

Kicking off its 15th-anniversary celebration, Microsoft becomes the first personal computer software company to exceed 1 billion dollars in sales in a single year, with revenues of 1.18 billion dollars.

August 30, 1990

Microsoft forms the Microsoft Consulting Services Group, aimed at helping large corporate customers better use Microsoft products to build complex information systems.

September 16, 1990

Microsoft launches the Microsoft Windows Computing Marketing Program, the largest single marketing campaign in the company's history to date. The total cost of the marketing campaign is more than $7 million.

September 19, 1990

IBM reaffirms its relationship with Microsoft and extends its licensing arrangements for the Microsoft® MS-DOS®, Microsoft Windows®, and OS/2® products. Highlighted are a series of steps that have been taken to improve the efficiency and productivity of development efforts for MS-DOS and OS/2.

October 1, 1990

Office for Windows which includes: Excel, Word, and PowerPoint is available.

November 12, 1990

Microsoft® Corp. and Interface Group announce the joining of forces to launch Windows World™ Conference and Exposition. The annual industry event will address the needs of the rapidly growing number of companies offering Windows® products

November 12, 1990

Bill Gates delivers his Information At Your Fingertips speech at Fall/COMDEX Las Vegas, Nevada.

1990 Revenue/Headcount

The 1990 fiscal year-end sales total $1,183,446,000, over the $1 billion mark for the first time.

The 1990 fiscal Year employee headcount totals 5,635 people.