"Teaser" press kit
Microsoft Windows 1.0 Launch
dated: November 10th, 1983
This piece is likely among the rarest of computing - or more accurately, "computing PR" - memorabilia you'll find anywhere.
In late 1983, to stir attention and interest for an important upcoming media event, Microsoft's marketing/PR mavens cooked up a small "teaser" promo kit, which they presumably sent out to various movers and shakers in the computer trade press. At the November 10th, 1983 conference and luncheon it promoted, Microsoft's new software initiative was revealed: a product allowing PC users to "multi-task" several DOS programs simultaneously, and to interact with their computers via a "graphical user interface". Bill Gates had lobbied for the catchy sobriquet of "Interface Manager", but the genius of Microsoft's nascent marketing department, Rowland Hanson, had won a long internal battle, and the product was announced with his chosen name: "Microsoft Windows".
Now remember, kids - this all happened WAY back in the Stone Age of PC history. 1983 was barely two years after IBM had introduced the original 5150 PC, with a vast 16kb of onboard RAM (the a single-sided 160kb floppy drive was optional, as you could always load your programs via the cassette tape interface). At this point the IBM AT and its blazing 6mhz 80286 CPU were still a year away, and the 80386 chip wasn't even on Intel's drawing boards yet. Even MS Word had yet to be announced to the public. The Microsoft of that era was hardly the 800-pound gorilla of computing we know and love today; its sales at the time were only a fraction of Lotus Development's (they of the original killer app, the 1-2-3 spreadsheet). But Bill and Steve had a dream...
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The press kit, as you can see in the photos, consisted of a cardboard box about 7" x 7" x 3".
The outside, done up in
the official Microsoft Forest Green corporate color scheme of the time, minces no
words:
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF SOFTWARE." |
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Once opened, what's revealed is a small brass squeegee and a cotton waffle-weave washcloth. (Note for the humor impaired: You know, like, stuff people use to clean windows.) Actually, both of these are of pretty high, professional-level quality - each kit must have cost Bill and company at least $10 to put together, not including the FedEx charges they presumably paid to get them to their destinations quickly. |
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FOR A CLEAR VIEW OF WHAT'S NEW IN MICROCOMPUTER SOFTWARE...
...please join Microsoft and 18 microcomputer manufacturers for a press conference to be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 10, 1983 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
A light lunch will be served and you will have an opportunity to interview each OEM and Microsoft throughout the rest of the day.
Please plan to attend. We will be in touch to confirm.
MICROSOFT ("blibbet"logo)
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[note: Pam Edstrom was the first director of Microsoft's PR department, who went on to join a very successful Portland-based PR firm, now known as Waggener-Edstrom - of which Microsoft is still the largest client.]
Measured by the yardstick of "actual shipping product", this announcement of "Windows" was highly premature; a poster-child for the then still-new software category of vaporware. Though promised by Microsoft to be on store shelves by April 1984 (announced retail price: $100), Windows Release 1.0 didn't actually ship until mid-November 1985 - over two years after this announcment. Reportedly the development project was initially pegged at 6-man years of effort, but ended up taking 90-man-years. Kind of puts the wait for the release of Longhorn in perspective, no?
Questions? Email me at squeegee /at/ freecycleseattle /dot/ org. Nice emails will be very likely to get a response.