Microsoft doesn’t need Windows anymore

computerworld.com

16 pointsfforflo2 comments

You can't just assume that this is just a result of market forces. Microsoft have been going out of their way to persuade customers that their product is just as worthless as every other disposable thing they buy. Millions of customers are prepared to pay a premium price to do simple basic things (like accounts on excel), and they are treated like a marketing opportunity for an annoying app store.

Windows has an amazing library of software that could be pre-installed for free on new machines. Maybe people would have paid a premium for an OS with "batteries included".

Realistically speaking, people simply don't see Windows prices anymore, it's been bundled by OEMs for such a long time. The premium you speak of is what people pay for Office add-on options at checkout, which are still insanely popular. I don't think you can squeeze much more out of that. They will actually have to shave functionality out, to enable more "apps" add-ons, the challenge being a streamlined interface to that (e.g. If you try to burn a cd, get a popup prompting to enable the feature via some app and so on).

Where Windows can technically and commercially grow is as a base "cloud OS" that is easier to launch and manage than current incumbents Ubuntu / RedHat. They have a lot of work to do to get there though.

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