4 ms·

How is this nuts? These are all smart moves as the personal pc landscape is changing and moving toward mobile devices. Making your desktop users happy with ye

How is this nuts? These are all smart moves as the personal pc landscape is changing and moving toward mobile devices. Making your desktop users happy with ye olde start menu and giving away WP are very smart moves. MS still will make a lot of money of its patent portfolio via android and its own WP app store. Selling an OS is an outdated concept and everyone knows it.

pantalaimon 13y ago
Why do people repeat saying that "the personal pc landscape is […] moving toward mobile devices"? I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sure there is a decline in sales for PCs because the market is saturated and for the most people, unless they are gamers, their 5 year old computer will do just fine. Yet people keep shouting that the days of the desktop computer are over and everyone soon will write their eMails on their smartphone only.
- thatthatis 13y ago
  Hypothetical semi personal example: I got an iPhone and suddenly about 40% of my Internet consumption went to the iPhone. Now, in that case most of the 40% was incremental, but it did supplant about 10% of my desktop browsing. I got a tablet and suddenly about 30% of my Internet consumption is on the tablet, stealing about 10% from the iPhone, 10% incremental, and 10% from desktop. I've reduced my desktop Internet use by only about 20%, but now desktop only makes up about 40% of my internet activity. What sane mega-corp would sit there and say "well, we still dominate the desktop 40% so lets not worry about the other 60% that is now consumed by related products." Computing is moving to mobile doesn't mean the mobile use has to come from cannibalization.
- nknighthb 13y ago
  > I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sounds like a highly biased sample set. I know several people who barely touch their PCs since getting a tablet, and there are an increasing number of children for whom PCs are just these weird things they see in school that, for some unfathomable reason, don't do anything when you touch the screen. There already aren't a lot of reasons left for non-techies to not stick to tablets. Those reasons will continue to recede.
- vertex-four 13y ago
  My dad hasn't touched his laptop in well over a year, since getting his iPhone and iPad. I know several other people who use tablets and don't even own computers.
- badman_ting 13y ago
  Do you know what a growth market is? And why that might be important to a business, particularly a gigantic one? Jeez. Sorry for the tone but the continued head-in-the-sand attitude towards MS is driving me batty.
- FigBug 13y ago
  For Microsoft, it doesn't matter how many people are using PCs, it's how many are buying them. If usage is down, replacement time is up and OS price is down, how is that anything but bad for Microsoft? There are still a lot of XP users that have given Microsoft no money since at least 2006 and have still costed them money in support.
- vinceguidry 13y ago
  > I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. My mom did. Switched to using her iPad last year. Occasionally tries to make her ancient PC retrofitted with Win8 work for her, then shrugs and goes back to her iPad.
- felipeerias 13y ago
  "the “computing” market in Q3 2008 was 92 million units of which Windows[3] was 90% whereas in Q3 2013 it was 269 million units of which Windows was 32%." http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/10/the-five-year-plan/ http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/10/the-five-year-plan/
simonh 13y ago
I wouldn't say they are smart moves as such, bearing in mind they are reversals of direction. Yes they are the right thing to do, but only because they did the wrong thing in the first place. MS still makes plenty of money selling Windows licenses to PC manufacturers, so charging for an OS isn't going away just yet. Arguably the other dominant OS in the desktop space - OSX - isn't free either. Upgrades are now free, but you (well, certainly 'I' anyway) pay a big chunk of cash over the hardware costs when you buy a Mac, for the privilege of running OSX and the iApps. MS isn't going to make much money on the WP App store though. Even Apple barely breaks even on the iOS App Store. Digital stores are essential to maintaining a viable ecosystem, but they're not profit centers. So if you have to give away your OS, barely break even on content sales (if that) and don't sell the hardware either where do you make your money? Well, MS is trying to answer that by selling the hardware as well, but the problem is the main reason they're doing that is because otherwise nobody would be making hardware to run their mobile OS at all. That is how bad things are. Even so, what are MS#s alternatives? They simply cannot afford to remain irrelevant in mobile. IMHO their best shot now is to go all-out with mobile versions of Office on WP, WinRT, Android and iOS. If they can manage to become relevant in mobile apps, there's a reasonable chance they might be able to leverage that into relevance in other areas.

pantalaimon 13y ago

Why do people repeat saying that "the personal pc landscape is […] moving toward mobile devices"? I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sure there is a decline in sales for PCs because the market is saturated and for the most people, unless they are gamers, their 5 year old computer will do just fine. Yet people keep shouting that the days of the desktop computer are over and everyone soon will write their eMails on their smartphone only.

thatthatis 13y ago
Hypothetical semi personal example: I got an iPhone and suddenly about 40% of my Internet consumption went to the iPhone. Now, in that case most of the 40% was incremental, but it did supplant about 10% of my desktop browsing. I got a tablet and suddenly about 30% of my Internet consumption is on the tablet, stealing about 10% from the iPhone, 10% incremental, and 10% from desktop. I've reduced my desktop Internet use by only about 20%, but now desktop only makes up about 40% of my internet activity. What sane mega-corp would sit there and say "well, we still dominate the desktop 40% so lets not worry about the other 60% that is now consumed by related products." Computing is moving to mobile doesn't mean the mobile use has to come from cannibalization.
nknighthb 13y ago
> I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sounds like a highly biased sample set. I know several people who barely touch their PCs since getting a tablet, and there are an increasing number of children for whom PCs are just these weird things they see in school that, for some unfathomable reason, don't do anything when you touch the screen. There already aren't a lot of reasons left for non-techies to not stick to tablets. Those reasons will continue to recede.
vertex-four 13y ago
My dad hasn't touched his laptop in well over a year, since getting his iPhone and iPad. I know several other people who use tablets and don't even own computers.
badman_ting 13y ago
Do you know what a growth market is? And why that might be important to a business, particularly a gigantic one? Jeez. Sorry for the tone but the continued head-in-the-sand attitude towards MS is driving me batty.
FigBug 13y ago
For Microsoft, it doesn't matter how many people are using PCs, it's how many are buying them. If usage is down, replacement time is up and OS price is down, how is that anything but bad for Microsoft? There are still a lot of XP users that have given Microsoft no money since at least 2006 and have still costed them money in support.
vinceguidry 13y ago
> I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. My mom did. Switched to using her iPad last year. Occasionally tries to make her ancient PC retrofitted with Win8 work for her, then shrugs and goes back to her iPad.
felipeerias 13y ago
"the “computing” market in Q3 2008 was 92 million units of which Windows[3] was 90% whereas in Q3 2013 it was 269 million units of which Windows was 32%." http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/10/the-five-year-plan/ http://www.asymco.com/2013/10/10/the-five-year-plan/

simonh 13y ago

I wouldn't say they are smart moves as such, bearing in mind they are reversals of direction. Yes they are the right thing to do, but only because they did the wrong thing in the first place. MS still makes plenty of money selling Windows licenses to PC manufacturers, so charging for an OS isn't going away just yet. Arguably the other dominant OS in the desktop space - OSX - isn't free either. Upgrades are now free, but you (well, certainly 'I' anyway) pay a big chunk of cash over the hardware costs when you buy a Mac, for the privilege of running OSX and the iApps. MS isn't going to make much money on the WP App store though. Even Apple barely breaks even on the iOS App Store. Digital stores are essential to maintaining a viable ecosystem, but they're not profit centers. So if you have to give away your OS, barely break even on content sales (if that) and don't sell the hardware either where do you make your money? Well, MS is trying to answer that by selling the hardware as well, but the problem is the main reason they're doing that is because otherwise nobody would be making hardware to run their mobile OS at all. That is how bad things are. Even so, what are MS#s alternatives? They simply cannot afford to remain irrelevant in mobile. IMHO their best shot now is to go all-out with mobile versions of Office on WP, WinRT, Android and iOS. If they can manage to become relevant in mobile apps, there's a reasonable chance they might be able to leverage that into relevance in other areas.