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disolitude on 02 March 2013
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Soleron said:
disolitude said:
pezus said:
...

Windows 8 will continue to evolve and should be considered version 1.0 that Microsoft, OEM partners and app developers are going to biuld on for many years to come. I doubt we will ever see Windows 9, but instead I wouldn't be surprised if Microsofts OS just becomes 'Windows' with yearly updates adding features and capabilities.

Chrome OS is doing the exact same thing as is OSX, Android, iOS and almost every other OS on the planet. 

MS hardly make any revenue from retail upgrade copies anyway. The yearly updates should be free, as a platform for increasing integration into MS's own paid services (Store, Live, Bing, cloud, tablet/phone integration). They will still make Windows money from new PC sales.

MS can't rely on lockin by default, so they need to actually make all these services a better choice than buying into Apple, or Google, or a patchwork of smaller services.

Now I don't think it will succeed but it's a better strategy than pretending it's 1998.

Appreciate to see a comment that can actually lead to an intelligent discussion...

Yep, its going to come down to services for sure.

Microsoft is arguably #2 or even #1 in terms of integrated services they can offer (depending if you are more consumer or business focused) . The only reason why Windows Phone 7 was even usable wass thanks to Microsofts own services which filled the most basic holes. Now things are picking up with WP8 thanks to W8 and cross platform development.

I am not sure Microsoft will ever be the powerhouse they were in 1998, but what they are trying to do makes sense to me. The Windows RT and Surface play is pretty smart IMO as they are getting their hands in to hardware building and locked down ecosystems.

Essentially when Google gets Chrome OS up to par and starts giving it away for free, and OEM's start to question if paying Microsoft money for an OS is viable, Microsoft can claim the entire X86/RT ecosystem as their own. By then they should have all the pieces in place and kinks worked out and hardware ready to go, by themselves and select few partners like Dell and Lenovo.

This is one of the main reasons why Gabe Newell is hating Win8 and wants to go Linux. He doesn't want to invest in to an ecosystem that isn't completely open which in a few years could be the case with Windows...