Then And Now — A Glance At Microsoft At The Start And End Of 2013

Here we are at the end of another 365 (and a quarter) days. It is quite an experience taking a look at everything that happened in the past twelve months and pick out the highlights and lowlights of the year. Better yet, it provides a bit of a hint at what is yet to come in the future.

So here is a brief little then and now of where Microsoft stood at the start of 2013 and where it stands with the year about to end. Dive in and enjoy the trip down the memory lane:

Then: Microsoft finished work and released a changelog for Windows Phone 7.8.
Now: The software titan is now deep into development on Windows Phone Blue.

Then: Microsoft shut down its temporary Times Square Store in New York City.
Now: It recently announced that the total count of Microsoft Stores has now reached 83.

Then: Windows 8 become the fourth most popular OS worldwide with 2.44 percent.
Now: It is now comfortably in third position with a market share of 8.05 percent.

Then: Acer was badmouthing Microsoft and Windows 8 left and right.
Now: The company lost track, changed management, and is currently in troubled waters.

Then: Some 39,000 apps were available in the Windows Store early in the year.
Now: That figure now stands at easily over 140,000.

Then: Rumors of the Outlook email client on Windows RT began to surface.
Now: The application, now released, is a fan favorite.

Then: Redmond confirmed that users were moving away from Windows XP.
Now: The users, apparently, are having a few troubles in the process.

Then: Nokia revealed sales of 4.4 million Lumia devices in the last quarter of 2012.
Now: It rather nicely doubled the figure to 8.8 million in the last quarter.

Then: Surface RT 64GB without Touch Cover was retailing for $599.
Now: Some retailers were selling the original tablet for $179 on Black Friday.

Then: Bill Gates, once again, ruled out a full time return to Microsoft.
Now: He is now heading the search for a replacement for CEO Steve Ballmer.

Then: Microsoft was undecided on the Windows RT jailbreak.
Now: It has now closed the exploit in Windows RT 8.1.

Then: Businesses were still reluctant to move away from Windows XP.
Now: Businesses are still reluctant to move away from Windows XP.

Then: Mozilla confirmed development on Firefox for Windows 8.
Now: Thanks to slow movement on this front, the world is still waiting.

Then: Meg Whitman, the CEO of HP, said that Windows 8 will eventually succeed.
Now: She now considers Microsoft an outright competitor.

Then: The official Dropbox app arrived on Windows 8.
Now: The official Facebook app arrived on Windows 8.1.

Then: There were voices that Nokia would sell off its handset division in 2013.
Now: We all know what happened in the months that followed.