A Suite of Seattle Tech's Ubiquitous Products
Image: Carlton Canary and Courtesy MOHAI
Windows
The flashing commands of MS-DOS didn’t stand the test of time, but the rectangular boxes that followed did. More than 1.4 billion people use Microsoft’s operating system, which debuted in 1985 and draws its name from all those content “windows.”
RealPlayer
Before Spotify and Netflix, there was this app to stream audio and grainy video over the internet. RealNetworks developed the “RealAudio Player” in 1995 from its Seattle HQ. Somehow, it still exists today.
Kindle
Books on screens were still a novelty in 2007, when Amazon rolled out this now-ubiquitous e-reader. They were also in demand. The new release sold out in five and a half hours.
Big as the Kindle has been, Amazon rarely cracks the top 10 among companies for nabbing patents, per IFI Claims Patent Services.
Image: Kittyfly / shutterstock.com
Zillow Voyeurism
Few forms of pandemic escapism caught on quite like endlessly scrolling through photos of quarantine spaces no one could afford. As real estate prices remain out of reach for many, this Seattle company’s hold on the internet remains firm.
Xbox
Washington state can’t claim it invented Nintendo, even though its U.S. HQ is in Redmond. But that other company in the suburb launched this console in 2001. Microsoft sought to compete with Nintendo’s GameCube and Sony’s PlayStation 2 in the gaming biz.
And then there’s Clippy.
