MICROSOFT-LAUNCH/WINDOWS 10 Microsoft launches Windows 10 with an eye on mobile market

Record ID: 145758

  • Title: MICROSOFT-LAUNCH/WINDOWS 10 Microsoft launches Windows 10 with an eye on mobile market
  • Date: 29th July 2015
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 29, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) YUSUF MEHDI, CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT, WINDOWS AND DEVICES GROUP, MICROSOFT CORP., SAYING: "The new approach we're taking with Windows is we're focused on happy, engaged customers and we believe that if we can get to a billion happy, engaged people using Windows, that's going to drive a bunch
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3H6NHZ5JZ77GW9B3V5TG96ZFN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Microsoft Corp launched its much-awaited Windows 10 operating system at midnight on Wednesday (July 29).
    Windows 10, which comes almost three years after the launch of the company's last operating system, will be available in 190 countries as a free upgrade for users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.
    The 'free' strategy is a calculated gamble, designed to put Windows on as many devices as possible. The company would then make up for any lost revenue by selling services such as Office over the Internet, or cloud.
    The new operating system is designed to work across laptops, desktop and smartphones and is part of Chief Executive Satya Nadella's push towards breaking Apple Inc and Google Inc's stranglehold in the mobile arena.
    Windows faces intense competition from Apple's iOS and Google's Android, which have cornered the lion's share of the mobile market.
    Microsoft's Windows and Devices Corporate Vice President Yusuf Mehdi explained what's new about Windows 10.
    "Well the biggest thing that we've had and we've wanted to achieve is really two things with the Windows platform; one is for developers, a single platform. So if you run an application once, it runs on all your devices. No other operating system does that. The second thing is a great user experience. So that when you are working, let's say, on your PC and you have to run to the car and you jump on your phone, that experience should just travel with you automatically or conversely when you come to the office and you plug in your tablet or your phone, you should be able to get a big screen experience. That's the big difference."
    Mehdi added, "The new approach we're taking with Windows is we're focused on happy, engaged customers and we believe that if we can get to a billion happy, engaged people using Windows, that's going to drive a bunch of things. It's going to help drive more PC sales with our partners in the OEM. It's going to make for faster deployments at enterprise because you'll have better testing. And it means that maybe some people who aren't used to Windows, who are on another operating system, might say, 'hey, I'll come take a look.'"
    The immediate revenue hit from the 'free' strategy is unlikely to be large, as Microsoft gets no more than $500 million (USD) of its $20 billion or so annual Windows revenue from upgrades, analysts have said.
    The vast majority of Windows revenue comes from hardware makers installing it on new PCs and businesses paying for multi-year licenses.
    Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said last week that Microsoft was looking to generate additional revenue by building search and gaming capabilities into the Windows 10 interface.
    Microsoft, which unveiled Windows 10 in September, skipped Windows 9 altogether, to put some distance between the new system and Windows 8, which confused many users by ditching the start button menu and introducing a new layout.
    Windows 10 brings back the start button, which may help the company appease users who were unimpressed by Windows 8. It also comes equipped with Microsoft's new browser, 'Edge'.
    Patrick Moorhead, President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, sampled Windows 10 and said Microsoft will have to do more to compete with Apple and Google.
    "Both iOS and Android are making billions of people happy. And I believe that to switch people over, you need a value proposition that's beyond the comfort of having the same experience on every device. So, I think it takes a combination of a hero-type phone, which Microsoft had said it's working on that does things that are dramatically different than iOS and Android, and to be frank, I haven't seen those yet. And it could be a possibility that Microsoft isn't showing people or maybe it's just not there. I think Microsoft has to prove itself, first to current PC users and then to tablet users before it could even broach the subject of having success in smartphones."
    But Moorhead added, "With Microsoft re-pricing Office 365 and its very fair pricing for One Drive and the quality of those services, I actually think Microsoft is in a little bit of a resurgence here. And I think their cloud and mobility strategy, at least as it relates to services and applications, appears to be paying off."
    New PCs and tablets running Windows 10 will go on sale on July 29, while the operating system will be made available on smartphones and other devices later this year.
    Microsoft said it was aiming to have 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in two to three years.
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