Thread by @finshots

How Xerox missed a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

A thread... (1/9)

Xerox introduced photocopying to this world and clocked in billions of dollars in revenues. As soon as their patents expired, they faced immense competition from cheaper Japanese brands. (2/9)

So Xerox started the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to innovate & retain dominance in the copier segment.

The PARC brought in a lot of innovations including the modern-day computer mouse, GUI (Graphical User Interface) which formed the basis for our computers. (3/9)

PARC went onto creating Xerox Alto, an advanced computer with a keyboard & mouse. But they produced just 2000 computers and didn't even release them commercially. Xerox was interested only in their printer and copier innovations. (4/9)

Steve Jobs caught wind of this, and impressed with the technology, he arranged a demo of Xerox Alto for his team, in exchange for offering 100,000 pre-IPO shares. Xerox team obliged. (5/9)

Although Xerox's GUI was not perfect, Apple took a lot of inspiration from it went on to create something unique.
(6/9)

As soon as the word reached Microsoft, it hired Charles Simoni-- a computer programmer from PARC, while Apple hired Xerox engineer Bob Belleville.
(7/9)

A few years later, in 1983, Bill Gates released an upgraded version of GUI called "Windows", and a mouse-based software called "Microsoft Word". (8/9)

Apple released its first Macintosh (Mac) in 1984.

Xerox could have been what ruled the computer tech world, but was reduced to serving as an inspiration for those that went on to change the world- Microsoft & Apple! (9/9)

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