How much can a small blunder affect a software behemoth like Microsoft? Depends on who is affected, right?. Digging through CNET archives took me to an article titled "How eight pixels cost Microsoft millions". My curiosity got the better of me...
Way back in 2004, Microsoft's chief of the geopolitical strategy team, Tom Edwards went on to reveal how one of the biggest companies in the world managed to offend one of the biggest countries in the world with a software slip-up. To quote from the article
Way back in 2004, Microsoft's chief of the geopolitical strategy team, Tom Edwards went on to reveal how one of the biggest companies in the world managed to offend one of the biggest countries in the world with a software slip-up. To quote from the article
When coloring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft colored eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown as non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was left to recall all 200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating system software to try and heal the diplomatic wounds. It cost the company millions of dollars.CNET also goes on to capture other instances from his speech on how Microsoft made similar blunders that offended Saudi Arabia and some Latin American countries. Interesting read on how corporate blunders bleed companies. Google similarly is on a warpath with the Indian government. Need to wait and see whether Google toes the Indian line.
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