Microsoft's Little-Known Hardware History
Bangalore: There is a buzz around Microsoft entering into the hardware market with its Surface tablet. What most of the people aren’t aware is the fact that Microsoft has been into hardware products for 32 out of its 37 years in business. Microsoft's product range over the years has expanded from a handful of mice and keyboards to game controllers, webcams, routers, cordless phones, speakers, MP3 players, cell phones, game consoles, and much more.
Microsoft even created a rich line of computer expansion hardware throughout the 1980s. Let’s take a look at those early hardware products that it manufactured.
Microsoft SoftCard (1980)
Microsoft launched SoftCard in 1980 as a plug-in card for the Apple II personal computer. The card contained a Zilog Z80 CPU that allowed the Apple II to run the popular CP/M disk operating system and software written to work with it. The card sold in large quantities making it Microsoft's most well-known hardware product until it introduced its mouse two years later.
