This is very good, and bodes well not just for the fortunes of Microsoft, but also for the entire Windows ecosystem of users, software ISVs, retailers, tech professionals, and partners, of which I am one at the day job.
This looming expansion of hardware offerings will be the rising tide that lifts all boats, as we will soon be able to place devices according to customer needs and budgets, and not be limited to a couple of hardware OEMs in tablets, and a handful of device manufacturers in mobiles.
Why the newfound interest?
Simple?
Sensible pricing.
Yes, people of Terra: sensible pricing.
Incredulously, and in the face of great competition, Microsoft had clung to vestigial pricing from the days when its products ruled.
Think about it, for these two product segments.
In smartphones, when Microsoft was about to perform its mobile OS reset, it still priced the then new Windows Phone OS relative to a) the cost of the old Windows Mobile operating system, and b) as if the new operating system would be such a gee whiz thingy that all comers would gladly pay for.
Erhh, not so.
If you thought that point of view was nuts, then the decision to charge would-be developers of apps for that mobile OS, then with a 0.00% share the amount of $99 per annum, was way beyond nutso, it was completely mental!
Traipsing over to windows on tablets, and such, I understand that Microsoft was still in the business of squeezing all the Latinum they could from the OEMs that were producing Windows products.
While I did discount companies like Acer, HP, and the like as complete whiners, a position that hasn’t changed, because their products offerings were truly shitty, I have to concede that Microsoft didn’t make any concessions to them monetarily with respect to having them dev innovative products for Windows RT (or whatever it is called today) and Windows on small form factor – relative to laptops – devices.
In another instance of dereliction of duty, the honchos at Microsoft seemed stunned at the market failure of Windows, and were quite unable to make necessary course corrections with respect to product pricing in order to goose the market.
The quite silly end-user incentives they came up with were childish, and unsurprisingly not well received.
It was as if they had forgotten two things about selling: incentivize the OEMs into delivering desirable products at several price points, and as I blogged here, solving the last mile hurdle.
Seriously, outside of the inhabitants of #1, Microsoft Way, in Redmond, it was clear to every sack of 53% water on this planet that Windows pricing had to be normalized relative to a) market conditions, b) market perceptions, and c) hardware OEM profitability.
Satya Nadella Walks In
Satya’s anointing as Microsoft CEO was a surprise to me since prior to his appointment to that post, he didn’t come across to me as someone with, you know, the ‘vision thing’.
I voiced my concerns publicly, and I was talked down, being informed that Satya’s vision was well known internally to Microserfs, and that I’d be surprised, and impressed.
Well, he certainly impressed me with his declaration at BUILD 2014 that Microsoft had indeed freed Windows OEMs of all devices under 10” screen size of the cost of obtaining Windows licenses.
Smart. Very smart.
In the face of the fact that the primary competition for Microsoft’s affection in this space, Google’s Android, was free.
(If you notice, I didn’t mention iOS. iOS devices are the mindshare leader, and currently out of reach for Microsoft to vanquish.)
I mean, were Microsoft execs in a time warp set at 2001 when they owned all computing outside mainframes and could dictate to the world?
You really have to wonder: just what the funk took Microsoft so long?
© 2002 – 2014, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited
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