One of the many gifts we got out of the Epstein files is details of Steve Sinofsky’s exit from Microsoft in 2012. We learn that the Surface RT was selling only 10% of the low-end of their predicted sales numbers, he was being pushed out, and Epstein was coaching him on negotiating an exit package.
He leaked internal Microsoft email threads to Epstein, where they were discussing the $900 million write-off of unsold Surface RTs. He negotiated to exit with $14 million in stock, which we knew about at the time, but it’s absolutely wild to learn who was involved, and the inner workings of it.
Windows 8 is the first product launch I properly remember. I was sick on the day of the Build 2011 keynote, so I stayed home and watched it. I ran all the betas and was excited for how Windows was changing. We were promised a new era with nicely-designed apps and a far better experience for developers, but they utterly flubbed all of it by being so confident in selfish things.
They were so sure the entire 27-year-old Windows ecosystem would magically reconfigure itself around Windows 8-only full-screen apps. They were even more sure they could sell tablets that could ONLY run apps from the Store that didn’t exist yet - or ever. Of course it wasn’t going to work. Why would it?
All of those RT tablets, which other brands also sold, are ewaste now. The Store is shut down, you can’t sideload apps because the licensing server is also gone. They pulled the plug on releasing Windows 10 for them. Without jailbreaking, you can’t do anything other than doodle in Paint or write a document in Word.
It’s maddening that someone can cost the company almost $1 billion on a product ANYONE could have told you wasn’t it. It’s even more maddening they can get a $14 million+ reward for so obviously missing the mark.
Yeah, there’s so much more that’s way more serious out of the files, but this one was relevant to my life. It adds another piece to the story of how I first learned that companies with all the capital in the world will get greedy and let you down.
