MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - Microsoft is hoping to consolidate its market position with the release of the new version of their operating system, known as Windows 9 or Windows Threshold which is to be presented on Tuesday.
Microsoft is holding the first public demonstration of its newest operating system today in San Francisco, the Verge tech blog reports. The new OS is likely to be named Windows 9 or Windows Threshold. The tech giant is hoping to improve its market position as the latest version of OS by Microsoft, Windows 8, has shown embarrassingly poor sales, says PCWorld.
Microsoft is in need of change these days due to several factors. First, they have a worldwide share of only 2.5% of the booming and lucrative mobile market, while Apple and Google combined hold the share of 96.4%, as estimated by the Motley Fool tech blog. Second, while the Microsoft share of the desktop soft market is about 90%, which would not be bad at all, most consumers today tend to prefer mobile devices, and therefore the desktop soft segment is rapidly losing profitability, says the Washington Post. Of all the computing devices sales combined, be it PCs, tablets or smartphones, Microsoft Windows powers only 14%. Third, the 2012 Windows 8 interface and overall design scared off the Microsoft long-time corporate customers, says Wall Street Journal. The businesses and enterprises have been reluctant to upgrade to Windows 8. This tendency is best illustrated by the numbers. The market share of the Windows 8 and 8.1 PC versions is only 12.48%, while 51% of the world’s PCs use Windows 7, and even the outdated Windows XP still enjoys some 25% of the market.
The recently-appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former head of the company’s cloud services division, earlier laid out a plan for the tech giant future development, as reported by Business Insider. The new CEO sees Microsoft as a more cloud- and mobile-oriented enterprise, and the recent acquisitions of Nokia Moblie division in late-2013 and Nokia Devices and Services in April, 2014 only support the main idea: Microsoft is determined to fight their rivals Google and Apple for a greater share of the highly-profitable market that yields a better perspective than the dying-out desktop segment. At the same time, the corporation needs to restore the trust of its multiple business clients as Google has recently intervened this market segment with their desktop-based cloud Chrome OS, as reported by the Droid Live tech blog.
So what direction will Microsoft choose with the next version of Windows? Daniel Ives, an analyst for FBR Capital, suggests that “the new Windows will include a more unified platform, with the underlying goal of creating a tightly woven integrated ecosystem for its software across all devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, PC)”, as reported by the Washington Post. Mr.Nadella has previously stated that “Increasingly, all of these experiences will become more connected to each other, more contextual and more personal”, as cited by the Washington Post.
In order to win a competitive edge, Microsoft is allegedly going to provide a free Windows 9 upgrade for Windows 8 users, as reported by the Computer World. However, Windows 7 users will have to pay in order to upgrade. The Microsoft free-upgrade strategy would comply with the consumer expectations, and will also put Windows on par with the Chrome OS and OS X, that already upgrade for free.
Most recent leaks suggest that the new version of Windows will feature, among other things, the return of the classic-design Start menu, the voice search service (which is now available on Windows Phone only), support for several desktops, a notification center, as well as enhanced system productivity, says the BGR tech blog.
"Ideally, this next version of Windows will continue an amazing streak of alternating releases," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research. "There was Windows 98, which was good, and then Windows ME, which wasn’t. There was Windows XP, then Vista. Windows 7, then Windows 8. So this is an opportunity to address their users' demands, as they have historically done", suggests Rubin, as reported by Computer Worl.
Apart from further expanding the Microsoft business in cloud and mobile directions, the new Windows 9 is likely to introduce a new approach to the operating system concept, says the ZDNet tech blog. The new Microsoft OS may be the last stand-alone Windows release, as it is more likely to be subscription-based, like most new software, say experts. This means that for a certain annual fee the Microsoft OS users will be receiving all the necessary updates in time of their initial releases. However, such strategy, while obviously beneficial for corporate customers, may further thwart private users, who choose open source software or a wide range of Google products.
Finally, the new Windows version may fill the app gap that has largely contributed to the Windows 8 commercial failure, which was first designed as an app-based OS. In other words, if compared to Apple or Google products, there are insufficient applications for Windows-powered devices. Experts say that Microsoft has now adjusted their economics to a more massive Windows-based app development, which means Microsoft products may soon pose a solid competition to the low-end and middle-class Android-operated devices.
