4 ms·

As it stands Microsoft has basically become a staple commodity. Like proctor & gamble peddling soap products Microsoft peddles products for small/medium corpora

As it stands Microsoft has basically become a staple commodity. Like proctor & gamble peddling soap products Microsoft peddles products for small/medium corporations. Xbox is the only thing keeping a foothold in the consumer space anymore. But they continue to make predictable money at it.

linkregister 10y ago
Microsoft Windows is still the most-installed OS by far in the consumer desktop and laptop space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...
pcwalton 10y ago
Despite the way it seems living in San Francisco, Apple's market share on desktop is under 10% (via browsing statistics). And Linux and Chrome OS have nearly an order of magnitude less market share. Windows is still, for all intents and purposes, completely dominant.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Regarding ChromeOS I never saw them here in Europe besides occasionall units at big surface stores. And they usually stay there for weeks before they vanish. It is quite easy to check if it is the same one, if they don't lock it. I never saw any trace of the success they appear to have in US.
- xenadu02 10y ago
  Yeah and half of all humans on the planet will own a smart phone within the next 5 years. That's an order of magnitude more than will ever own a desktop/laptop. 1/3 or so will be iOS devices, around 1.5 billion and will represent 90% of all profit available. iOS commands a huge lead in enterprise sales, 75-80% in the US market. Apple skated to where the puck was going, not where it already was. Microsoft was too busy servicing the cash cow (and fomenting internal politics) to allow any disruptions. They had already lost the next great battle the day the iPhone was released. Google's Android only survived because they pulled the mother of all pivots the day of the iPhone announcement and immediately poured all their efforts into copying iOS. (Remember: Android started life as a Blackberry clone!) None of this is controversial - the original Android team members have confirmed it in multiple interviews over the years. What Microsoft is doing now is extremely smart. They know they lost the mobile war and are moving on to the next battlefield: Cloud services. They're milking Windows on the desktop as they make the transition but it's just a smoke screen to buy time. Open sourcing technology, supporting Linux, etc are all moves designed to get them customers for Azure. They'll now happily sell you SQL Server for Linux licenses, or a subscription for Office on iPad.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    Yes, but with the convergence of laptops/tablets with Surface like devices, but actually have a win there. Using iOS or Android on a tablet + keyboard isn't really the same experience as being able to use all the usual Windows applications if I want to, specially Visual Studio on the go. However they are just pivoting like IBM did when they lost the PC market.
  - oblio 10y ago
    Well, if we're talking about the long game, let's continue following that puck :) As smartphones become more and more popular, they reach further and further down towards groups of people who can't afford iOS devices (unless you're counting second hand devices). I don't really see Apple's % of the market ever going up. As the market matures and the hardware reaches "good enough" levels, the overwhelming majority of smartphones used will be the equivalent of the "beige boxes" of old (from the PC world). On top of that, the app competition is becoming so cutthroat that app prices will probably continue to go down (per app). So, long story short: Apple will probably never enjoy a bigger share of the smartphone market than it did in the past and most of the competition will be around hardware and software with razor thin margins. Meanwhile, more and more people from developing countries will start working in companies which use overwhelmingly... Windows desktops and associated software. They will also use and pay for various services, some of which, as you noted, will be hosted on... Azure. Microsoft's main cash cows will never dry up. Companies want/are willing/are able to pay for software. I think that the longer term threat for Microsoft is Amazon, not Apple.
    - vhanda 10y ago
      > Meanwhile, more and more people from developing countries will start working in companies which use overwhelmingly... Windows desktops and associated software. Chromebooks are getting popular as well, and so are certain convertible Android tablets. Maybe they'll just skip Windows altogether.
    - Gravityloss 10y ago
      If you're working on any cloud software backend, windows is probably your third choice for development environment, and I see it really unlikely to change. I see office software being commoditized instead. Then even the business guys can move off windows. If only google had some motivation improving docs. Maybe that hits another cultural wall. An engineering driven company can't produce tools for creating beautiful content.

linkregister 10y ago

Microsoft Windows is still the most-installed OS by far in the consumer desktop and laptop space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

pcwalton 10y ago

Despite the way it seems living in San Francisco, Apple's market share on desktop is under 10% (via browsing statistics). And Linux and Chrome OS have nearly an order of magnitude less market share. Windows is still, for all intents and purposes, completely dominant.

pjmlp 10y ago
Regarding ChromeOS I never saw them here in Europe besides occasionall units at big surface stores. And they usually stay there for weeks before they vanish. It is quite easy to check if it is the same one, if they don't lock it. I never saw any trace of the success they appear to have in US.
xenadu02 10y ago
Yeah and half of all humans on the planet will own a smart phone within the next 5 years. That's an order of magnitude more than will ever own a desktop/laptop. 1/3 or so will be iOS devices, around 1.5 billion and will represent 90% of all profit available. iOS commands a huge lead in enterprise sales, 75-80% in the US market. Apple skated to where the puck was going, not where it already was. Microsoft was too busy servicing the cash cow (and fomenting internal politics) to allow any disruptions. They had already lost the next great battle the day the iPhone was released. Google's Android only survived because they pulled the mother of all pivots the day of the iPhone announcement and immediately poured all their efforts into copying iOS. (Remember: Android started life as a Blackberry clone!) None of this is controversial - the original Android team members have confirmed it in multiple interviews over the years. What Microsoft is doing now is extremely smart. They know they lost the mobile war and are moving on to the next battlefield: Cloud services. They're milking Windows on the desktop as they make the transition but it's just a smoke screen to buy time. Open sourcing technology, supporting Linux, etc are all moves designed to get them customers for Azure. They'll now happily sell you SQL Server for Linux licenses, or a subscription for Office on iPad.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Yes, but with the convergence of laptops/tablets with Surface like devices, but actually have a win there. Using iOS or Android on a tablet + keyboard isn't really the same experience as being able to use all the usual Windows applications if I want to, specially Visual Studio on the go. However they are just pivoting like IBM did when they lost the PC market.
- oblio 10y ago
  Well, if we're talking about the long game, let's continue following that puck :) As smartphones become more and more popular, they reach further and further down towards groups of people who can't afford iOS devices (unless you're counting second hand devices). I don't really see Apple's % of the market ever going up. As the market matures and the hardware reaches "good enough" levels, the overwhelming majority of smartphones used will be the equivalent of the "beige boxes" of old (from the PC world). On top of that, the app competition is becoming so cutthroat that app prices will probably continue to go down (per app). So, long story short: Apple will probably never enjoy a bigger share of the smartphone market than it did in the past and most of the competition will be around hardware and software with razor thin margins. Meanwhile, more and more people from developing countries will start working in companies which use overwhelmingly... Windows desktops and associated software. They will also use and pay for various services, some of which, as you noted, will be hosted on... Azure. Microsoft's main cash cows will never dry up. Companies want/are willing/are able to pay for software. I think that the longer term threat for Microsoft is Amazon, not Apple.
  - vhanda 10y ago
    > Meanwhile, more and more people from developing countries will start working in companies which use overwhelmingly... Windows desktops and associated software. Chromebooks are getting popular as well, and so are certain convertible Android tablets. Maybe they'll just skip Windows altogether.
  - Gravityloss 10y ago
    If you're working on any cloud software backend, windows is probably your third choice for development environment, and I see it really unlikely to change. I see office software being commoditized instead. Then even the business guys can move off windows. If only google had some motivation improving docs. Maybe that hits another cultural wall. An engineering driven company can't produce tools for creating beautiful content.