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Microsoft to Cut Windows Licensing Price by 70% to Compete with Apple
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Valve does this with Steam. Has ridiculous sales on games to where everyone buys without thinking and never has time to play the game. I have 180 games, a good majority from Humble Bundles, but still.
"A few" people. Have you looked at a sales chart lately?
Clearly you have absolutely no idea what your talking about.
They made more money this year from Office than last year. I don't see how that is a piece of data that screams 'mass Office exodus'.
Microsoft makes most of their money from Enterprise Software and Commercial Licensing. That's Windows Enterprise, Server Products, Office Business Products, Dynamics (which is ERP and CRM), and Unified Communications. All software, all business products. No Xbox. No Bing. No consumer stuff.
Microsoft's second-biggest segment is something called "Devices and Consumer Licensing" but it's still mostly software. It includes consumer Windows sales, Windows Phone OS sales, Office Consumer, and IP licensing.
So... even if Microsoft doesn't want to be a software company anymore... they are still by far a software company.
Again... Surface and other hardware pales in comparison to Microsoft's software revenue.
Apple is a hardware company... Google is an advertising company. It would be interesting to see Microsoft (the world's largest software company) transition into anything that resembles those other two companies.
Microsoft makes the software... the OEMs make the hardware. That's not gonna change anytime soon. Microsoft needs OEM partners.
Like I said before... Microsoft makes MOST of its money from enterprise software and consumer software. And that is dependent on OEMs providing the hardware.
Just imagine if Dell, HP, Lenovo and others stopped selling PCs. Would Microsoft really be able to provide all that hardware?
no, it is not. How many windows computers do you currently see on the market which retail for less then $250? Almost none.
The true reason they have slashed prices is to encourage OEM to jump into the new budget win 8 tablet building business. The manufacturer saves $35 on licensing cost, if he can just bump the price down a little bit to hit the $249 limit.
This is clearly aimed at tablets like the Dell Venue Pro 8 (street price $229-$279), the Toshiba Encore ($299), and the Lenovo Miix 2 ($279).
If Microsoft can get the manufacturers to drop prices to the impulse buy level, then maybe this new market will take off for them. They are going head-to-head with Apple and Android tablets, and pricing is everything in this battle.
They won't beat Apple by selling $650 tablets.
Getting all my windows needs solved w XP & 7 running in VMs. Intend to keep it that way.
It would be best to disconnect that XP VM from the internet after April 8th, otherwise it will be very vulnerable to malware and hacker attacks.
Office? Why are you talking about Office? It's no wonder your replies make no sense, you can't even read the posts properly.
I would't pay Xp/Vista/7 prices for them, but I would certainly install Vista to get away from XP.
competition is with Chrome, not Apple
This is a misleading headline.
The price cut is due to ChromeOS, not Apple. Vendors are starting to build low-cost Chromebooks and MS is afraid of them just as it was afraid of netbooks.
Apple is afraid of neither.
This is a misleading headline.
The price cut is due to ChromeOS, not Apple. Vendors are starting to build low-cost Chromebooks and MS is afraid of them just as it was afraid of netbooks.
Apple is afraid of neither.
The business incentives and models for Apple and Google are completely different. It's very difficult, if not impossible to be a bit of both. If MS tries to straddle both sides of the fence for too long, they will realize it will only lead to busting their balls.
They must choose what side they want to be on - 1) devices or 2) software & services ( ad-based & subscription-based).
The only thing I can say about Windows and MS is after 25 years of using it I'm thankful its in my past.
At some level, you are right, but you're also very wrong. People hate windows8. This is just a publicity stunt to keep everyone from jumping ship. You are 100% wrong if you think this has nothing to do with OS X. It has everything to do with it. Hundreds of people are jumping ship every single day, Microsoft is getting desperate.
How has OS X gotten worse? Just don't use the new features, or don't upgrade. Not hard.
And are people still complaining about FCP X? FCP 7 was an old, archaic dinosaur with a 2.5 GB RAM limit and a mid 90's UI. It needed to be replaced, get over it.
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The start menu in 8.1 is a joke. All it does is bring you back to the stupid metro UI, it doesn't act as a proper start menu on the desktop.
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How is OS X not doing better? I don't see a public backlash from OS X like W8. And Windows can run on Mac's to entice switchers and do people can still use their windows only apps, pretty straight forward.
Still overpriced. It's not even worth a $1 compared to OS X. My Wndows days are happily behind me.
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The do make pretty nice mice
Not going to lie - i have a retina mbp - my first mac, and i cannot tell you how sluggish it is and this was right out of the box! my machine is a $3k spec machine but loads windows 8.1 flawlessly....
maybe i got a lemon...? but i bought this laptop to get away from windows only going back to it after OSX's poor performance. i took it to the apple store and they said that sluggishness is expected! i kid you not! the opening desktop animation when you start the machine literally hangs and stutters! and i barely have any software installed on it!
/rant. the hardware is sexy though and it's the best windows 8.1 laptop i own
And Office, Windows Azure, Windows Server, Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL Server, Exchange/Lync, etc...
The 16 or so divisions of Microsoft each bringing in over $1billion. I think that's more than a modicum of success
Windows 7 start button: brings up a list of favorite or most used programs, a list of all programs, a search function to quickly find a program with a few keystrokes. Exiting start menu reutns to desktop.
Windows 8 start button: brings up a list of favorite or most used programs, a list of all programs, a search function to quickly find a program with a few keystrokes. Exiting start screen returns to desktop.
Different UI, same functionality.
I remember people getting upset with the XP start menu, then the Vista start menu. On the Mac side I think it was OS X 10.5 that caused a few people to get upset with the new look and feel, then it was Launchpad and Mission Control. People bitch, moan and complain whenever things change, swearing they'll never like it, and then defend it when it changes again.
It's not just the start screen that people have a problem with... it's that the start screen also represents a separate operating environment with its own set of applications (Modern/Metro)
If you open a JPG image... it will open in a Metro photo viewer... not a traditional photo viewer they are used to. It is confusing to some people if they're not prepared for that.
I know people who get a new Windows 8 laptop... and they are lost because they don't know why certain things are happening. "What is this? How do I get out of this?" are common questions I hear. It's just not what they're used to.
Why are there two versions of Internet Explorer? One on Metro and one on the desktop? It's little things like that which are confusing.
Most people barely understand computers anyway... but Windows has worked pretty much the same for a long time.
But then they buy a computer with Windows 8... and they're greeted by a new UI with its own set of programs in addition to the familiar desktop. Some things open in a Metro app... while other things open in a traditional desktop program.