Following Apple and Google, Microsoft may be forced make Windows for free

12 years ago

“The details around Windows 9 — code named ‘Threshold’ — are beginning to emerge, but the real action will go well beyond features and whether Microsoft can put Windows 8 in the rear view mirror,” Larry Dignan reports for ZDNet.Dignan reports. “Microsoft’s real challenge with Windows will be navigating a classic innovator’s dilemma and how it can thread a needle between preserving a cash cow and ultimately give Windows away to hardware makers.”

“That place is where Microsoft is going to have to go if it wants to preserve its Windows ecosystem and market share. And how Microsoft navigate that business model change is going to be telling,” Dignan reports. “The folks in Redmond may laugh off the idea of giving Windows away for free to original equipment manufacturers, but the writing is on the wall”

Consider:
• Apple doesn’t charge for its Mac OS anymore.
• Google Chromebooks have become more popular.
• PC makers are now adding Android desktop systems because they can customize and probably get better margins.
• Price will be king in the PC market and Android and Chromebooks could be counterweight to Microsoft.
• Mobile operating systems are driving computing.
• Windows 8 was a black eye for Microsoft and it’s going to be a challenge to come back from a Vista-ish flop twice.
• The PC market is being splintered into multiple operating systems.

“When I consider those moving parts, it’s not that surprising that Microsoft is having trouble naming a new CEO,” Dignan reports. “It’s going to suck to be the new CEO.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It must be quite the dilemma, since beleaguered Microsoft aren’t innovators.

Microsoft is not facing an “innoavtor’s dilemma,” they’re facing Karma.

Good luck with that, you incompetent hacks.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “The Wizard” for the heads up.]