Microsoft missed several technological trends and faltered in its journey. Still it survived and has remained a tech star by reinventing.

A lean patch Microsoft faced stretched from mid-2000s to 2014. Microsoft was derided by rivals. It could not make a successful search engine. It could not compete with Google in garnering digital advertising. It could not think of Android-like operating system for mobiles, though lately introduced Windows phones could not succeed as much. Still during this lean patch, Microsoft continued to earn money because of Windows-installed computers and its server running technology. It then diversified into telephone systems, data bases and file storage systems. Microsoft did one big thing — it entered into cloud computing. It is one of the most significant technologies of the last 15 years.