In a year where we largely turned our backs on the real world and huddled indoors, technology and the companies that developed them gained outsized influence. Microsoft loomed larger than most, powering the PCs that ran Microsoft Teams and the Xbox game consoles on which at least some of us passed their time after hours.
So was it, overall, a great year for Microsoft? Not exactly. The pandemic disrupted its product development, for one, forcing Microsoft to readjust its dual-screen ambitions. The hype train that accompanied its Surface Duo never apparently panned out in actual sales.Â
We’ve collected Microsoft’s highlights, low points, and unexpected moments that made us scratch our head. It was a profoundly weird, awful year, and we’re all hoping to return to a sense of normalcy in 2021.