4 ms·
I think Microsoft is recognizing that locking people into an ecosystem is not a long term solution when there are near equivalent ecosystems available for free.
by hguant 11y ago
I think Microsoft is recognizing that locking people into an ecosystem is not a long term solution when there are near equivalent ecosystems available for free. It almost seems like they're positioning themselves to get mindshare ('Hey, this free product from the Evil Empire isn't that bad! Maybe they're just another empire, and not so evil.') and transition that into a paid service (Azure is what immediately springs to mind, but Office is pretty essential when you get past a certain point (I say this as a long time OpenOffice/LibreOffice user - there are some things MS just gets right).
- rogeryu 11y ago> Maybe they're just another empire, and not so evil. They are just another empire. Enter the new world! This is the smartphone and cloud era!
- scholia 11y agoOr maybe Microsoft is just creating a bigger and better ecosystem.... Who else is trying to cover all your needs (1) both on-premise and in the cloud; (2) across platforms from USB thumbdrives to smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops and servers; and (3) has cross-platform apps on Windows, Android and iOS? Google is pretty much cloud-only and Apple is pretty much Apple only, and neither of them supports anything like the same range of devices. It's a long play, but Microsoft has been executing this strategy for a few years now....