The software giant Microsoft Corporation (MSFT, Financial) in a big move to expand its reach and create monopoly in the market is offering the newly launched Windows 10 Operating System absolutely free to all its legitimate and even illegitimate users. The upgrade will be available for all Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 users for the first year of release. The new operating system upgrade will be available from this summer in 190 countries and in 111 languages.
What it features
It’s back to the basics! With Microsoft, the start menu will make a comeback making it easy to pin your favorite applications. The new version will also get updates automatically casting away all security issues.
It’ll have some unique features making it even more desirable:
- Action centre – where all notifications and key settings can be found
- Projects "Spartan" – a brand new browser built to do all things easily like writing directly on web pages from your PC, reading articles without interference and saving for an offline reading.
- The one stop shop App Store of Microsoft
- More storage space as the new Windows will occupy only around 1.5 GB of storage for 32 bit system and 2.6 GB for 64 bit system.
- The Reset & Refresh option – by not using a separate recovery image, preinstalled by PC makers, about 4 to 12 Gb space will be saved depending on PC model, thus a total saving of 15 GB storage space.
- The biometric system "Hello" – allowing customers to use Ink, voice, gestures and gaze.
- The Cortana – an option of 7 languages and "Yoda impersonation" mode (currently in Beta Mode)
Why free?
Many theories have come forward towards why Microsoft is giving the New Windows 10 for free and with that an even bigger question has popped up – How will the company earn its revenues after this huge loss?
Piracy stopper move
The big announcement came in a conference in China making it very clear that Microsoft is intentionally offering it for free and focusing on the China market – A hub of piracy.
Microsoft believes that the move will make the pirates understand the importance of the genuine buy that offers upgrades and hassle free functioning. Despite several attempts, Microsoft could not get rid of piracy, and finally this move to bring the illegal machines into a legal network.
The Apple & Google model of earning revenues
All Apple (AAPL, Financial) updates come free for its customers, the company makes up for the lost revenue by increased hardware sales. Microsoft also plans to follow similar path by launching hybrid model of a notebook, a surface tablet and other new devices.
Similarly, Google (GOOG, Financial) approach in extracting lost revenues through mobile advertising and Google Play Store, Microsoft too wants to follow the same by launching a range of cloud services for its consumers like Office 365, Skype and OneDrive. This way even if all the customers keen on buying anything from Microsoft’s kitty of Apps, at least they’ll be still in Microsoft ecosystem.
The revival policy
Microsoft saw a sharp fall in revenues down from 23% last year to 16% this fiscal. By offering free OS the company wants to ensure widespread Microsoft network and gain back market share from Top players like Google and Apple. The pirated versions are long pending for updation which can lead to malware and viruses due to lack of security updates.
Microsoft’s conventional mode of revenues has always been through licensing software like Windows and Office to OEMs and businesses. The dominance of the PC market made Microsoft a hit. But things have changed, and the mobile market is slowly turning things in its favour. People prefer being hooked onto their mobile phones instead of sitting on a PC.
Apple has always followed the strategy to link its range of products with the future ones, thus making the products itself as a marketing device. Similarly Microsoft applied the same model in Surface Pro 3 which has a deep connection with OneNote and Cortana on one hand and is equipped to work along with Bing in its functionality on the other hand.
Conclusion
By bringing in the Windows OS 10 for free, Microsoft is ready to count numbers in billions and not millions anymore. This will make it easier to unify the Microsoft ecosystem. The offer is also a move to integrate legal and illegal, applications and products. Regardless of whether it’ll achieve what it aims for, at least it’s a welcome change that Microsoft has brought for its customers worldwide.
