Why WP8 and Windows RT will succeed?

[Pouria]

I just upgraded to Windows 8 and it is a lighter Windows 7 that lacks the start button but has the metro UI which people seem to complain about a lot. Although, what will make Windows Phone 8, Windows RT and Windows 8 to succeed will be the fact that Windows 8 will be on every PC sold globally after October 26. With developers drooling at the thought of targeting potentially 300 million users, its no doubt that Microsoft App Store will explode with numerous in coming apps from developers around the globe. There is a reason why Windows 8 Pro upgrade package is subsidized to $39 while Windows 7 OS sells for more than $100. Microsoft wants to speed the adaptation of Windows 8 by all PC users so everyone who uses Windows XP, VISTA or Windows 7 can upgrade their OS to Windows 8 by paying only a nominal fee of $39. Microsoft is trying to create an ecosystem similar to what Apple has done and have all the devices that use their operating system be synchronized from Xbox 360 to Windows phone 8 to Microsoft Surface and PC. I would say Apple has a big competition, especially with the upcoming Windows 8 flagship phones from HTC, Samsung and Nokia. Am seeing a shift in Microsoft's paradigm of computing as we are going from installing regular PC applications from different websites to Apps from a centralized location. This shift in computing strategy is all thanks to Apple which has influenced the computer world. In 5 years, I bet everything will be downloaded strictly from App stores (Microsoft, Google or Apple) and cloud storage will be the main storage used to backup files and pictures instead of USBs or portable HDD.

[Mr. Ambien]

I don't really share your Microsoft utopia vision.

[Pouria]

I don't really share your Microsoft utopia vision.

[Mr. Ambien]

You don't need to, just look at the market share of PCs. Even an Apple fan boy must admit that there are more PC users than Mac users. Am just telling the truth and whether you like it or not, everyone will have Windows 8 on their computer in a couple of years. BTW, am not even a Microsoft fan boy and I own an Apple product just an FYI.

[Pouria]

Marketshare of PC's has been the same for ages, but PC's, and perhaps consoles, is where Microsoft's dominance stops.

I've also fixed computers since 1996, and despite the Windows 3.x/9x BSOD annoyances, I've never seen so many issues, and reluctance from businesses, switching to a new MS OS as I have with Vista and 7. I'm awaiting reviews and hands-on trials from a test bunny family member or friend to see how Windows 8 is but if the last two OS's are any trend is Microsoft isn't helping themselves.

Like I said, I don't share that utopian vision.

[YaK]

Digitally downloaded content is the future (and in many ways is already here).

One issue I have with the "cloud computing" concept is increased dependence on an internet connection. Between my home internet, my data plan, and wi-fi hotspots I am generally within range of an internet connection, but not always, and it is a less reliable connection than a hard drive. I see the concept working well for organizations and certain types of mobile user but I am personally hesitant to ditch my terabytes of hard drive space.

In my particular situation there are weeks at a time when I may not be able to access even a cell signal, so if programs require a connection to even run...

But clearly Microsoft and computing in general seem to be heading this direction.

[LostViking]

Apple relies incredibly on their marketing to be successful. They have other strengths, they seem to be able to make components smaller than their competitors can and their software can sometimes be much more user friendly. However, they still rely on the new iWhatever being the most popular new gadget to bring in a large chunk of their market share.

Lets put this mentality through a thought experiment, everyone is going nuts for the iPhone5 right now, how do you think the iPhone 3gs is selling right now? Now there are certainly competitors of Apple who can sell a iPhone 3gs level device, and they can actually make sales, Apple would have a very hard time selling that same calibre product (in fairness they do well with the iPod Shuffle, but that relies on their uncanny ability to make things small better than everyone else can).

In my opinion, that is Apple's one glaring weakness, in order to continue to dominate, they must offer you the opportunity to be the envy of everyone else, that promise you will have the absolute best device, and everyone else will be so jealous. This mentality does not lend itself well to capturing market share, as there will always have to be a big chunk of people with lesser devices for the Apple fans to look down upon, and those other people will be a huge chunk of market share.

Apple is by no means hurting itself, they have grabbed the "loaded with cash" segment of the market, and are doing very well to maintain it. However Microsoft's "A windows computer in every home" mentality lends itself better to a sustainable monopoly over a long period of time. Similar to how Honda can outperform Ferrari in market share and sales, while being unbelievably inferior in actual quality and public opinion.

[Pouria]

The fact of the matter is that developers look for largest number of users to push their products to. If iPads and iPhones have huge number of apps, it is because of the number of users not because of the quality of Apple's OS or their quality of hardware or their trendy designs. The question I have is why wouldn't Microsoft succeed if they are implementing a similar ecosystem that Apple is using to sell more of their products. If Microsoft already has close to 1 billion PC users using their products and integrating into the Microsoft world. In fact, Windows 7 has sold $150 million copies in 8 months. So I do question why Windows won't succeed in the tablet market or the phone market if they build that similar ecosystem that Apple is using.

Here are the numbers for comparison:

Microsoft by the numbers

25 Jun 2010 12:30 PM

[uPDATE: We made an error in the reported figure for Apple’s Net Income in our original post – the cited source had the correct number but we somehow got a wrong number into the body of my post. This post has been updated with the correct figure.]

You probably saw the news this week that we’ve sold 150 million Windows 7 licenses in 8 months. That's more than 600,000 per day. And, perhaps fittingly for a product called Windows 7, it adds up to 7 copies every second of every day since launch.

As a communications guy, I’m generally most comfortable with words. But since Microsoft is a pretty numbers-driven company, the Windows 7 milestone got me thinking about some *other* numbers, too.

Of course, numbers are only one dimension of a story. And we live in a hyper-competitive industry, with loads of challenges to go along with loads of opportunity. All the same, with Windows 7, Office 2010, Bing, Xbox 360, Kinect, Windows Phone 7, our cloud platform, and many other products, services and happy customers, 2010 is shaping up as a huge year for us.

So, without further ado, a few of my favorite numbers:

1

150,000,000

Number of Windows 7 licenses sold, making Windows 7 by far the fastest growing operating system in history.^{[source ]}

2

7.1 million

Projected iPad sales for 2010. ^{[source ]}

58 million

Projected netbook sales in 2010. ^{[source ]}

355 million

Projected PC sales in 2010. ^{[source ]}

3

<10

Percentage of US netbooks running Windows in 2008. ^{[source ]}

96

Percentage of US netbooks running Windows in 2009. ^{[source ]}

4

0

Number of paying customers running on Windows Azure in November 2009.

10,000

Number of paying customers running on Windows Azure in June 2010. ^{[source ]}

700,000

Number of students, teachers and staff using Microsoft’s cloud productivity tools in Kentucky public schools, the largest cloud deployment in the US.^{[source ]}

5

16 million

Total subscribers to largest 25 US daily newspapers. ^{[source ]}

14 Million

Total number of Netflix subscribers. ^{[source ]}

23 million

Total number of Xbox Live subscribers. ^{[source ]}

6

9,000,000

Number of customer downloads of the Office 2010 beta prior to launch, the largest Microsoft beta program in history. ^{[source ]}

7

21.4 million

Number of new Bing search users in one year. [Comscore report – requires subscription]

8

24%

Linux Server market share in 2005. ^{[source ]}

33%

Predicted Linux Server market share for 2007 (made in 2005). ^{[source ]}

21.2%

Actual Linux Server market share, Q4 2009. ^{[source ]}

9

8.8 million

Global iPhone sales in Q1 2010. ^{[source ]}

21.5 million

Nokia smartphone sales in Q1 2010. ^{[source ]}

55 million

Total smartphone sales globally in Q1 2010. ^{[source ]}

439 million

Projected global smartphone sales in 2014. ^{[source ]}

10

9

Number of years it took Salesforce.com to reach 1 million paid user milestone. ^{[source ]}

6

Number of years it took Microsoft Dynamics CRM to reach 1 million paid user milestone. ^{[source ]}

100%

Percent chance that Salesforce.com CEO will mention Microsoft in a speech, panel, interview, or blog post.

11

173 million

Global Gmail users. ^{[source ]}

284 million

Global Yahoo! Mail users.^{[source ]}

360 million

Global Windows Live Hotmail users.^{[source ]}

299 million

Active Windows Live Messenger Accounts worldwide. [Comscore MyMetrix, WW, March 2010 - requires subscription]

1

Rank of Windows Live Messenger globally compared to all other instant messaging services. [Comscore MyMetrix, WW, March 2010 - requires subscription]

12

$8.2 Billion

Apple Net income for fiscal year ending Sep 2009. ^{[source ]}

$6.5 Billion

Google Net income for fiscal year ending Dec 2009. ^{[source ]}

$14.5 Billion

Microsoft Net Income for fiscal year ending June 2009. ^{[source ]}

$23.0 billion

Total Microsoft revenue, FY2000. ^{[source ]}

$58.4 billion

Total Microsoft revenue, FY2009. ^{[source ]}

fxs

Posted by Frank X. Shaw

Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications

http://blogs.technet...he-numbers.aspx

[Mr. Ambien]

Tell me, other than the Microsoft OS, what other OS do most businesses use nowadays? Macs? Linux/UBUNTU?

Some people might not like Windows Vista or Windows 7 but they are still using it. Fact of the matter is, with gaming developers mainly making games for Microsoft and taking advantage of its Direct X11, PCs with Windows will continue to outsell Macs and other machines with different OS (Ubuntu). Also, with the rapid technological advancements in some of the African countries, more people will be using PCs. So facts are that Microsoft's monopoly in the PC world has not changed and this isn't really a utopian vision but reality. Apple will still sell gazillions of iPhones, iPads and iPods so it doesn't really hurt Apple either as they already have their niche market.

[Pouria]

The slow and hesitant adoption to Windows Vista and 7 are proof in the pudding of the lack of confidence in the last two operating systems. This will only continue as a trend for so long before businesses start hiring more Linux and Mac developers/techs. You can toss around the word "fact" all you like, if that makes you feel better about your position, that doesn't change your vision being a utopian one, and three responses in, rather fanatical.

[Pouria]

The slow and hesitant adoption to Windows Vista and 7 are proof in the pudding of the lack of confidence in the last two operating systems. This will only continue as a trend for so long before businesses start hiring more Linux and Mac developers/techs. You can toss around the word "fact" all you like, if that makes you feel better about your position, that doesn't change your vision being a utopian one, and three responses in, rather fanatical.

[CanucksLegacy]

I'll stick to my Windows XP tyvm.

[Heretic]

You don't need to, just look at the market share of PCs. Even an Apple fan boy must admit that there are more PC users than Mac users. Am just telling the truth and whether you like it or not, everyone will have Windows 8 on their computer in a couple of years. BTW, am not even a Microsoft fan boy and I own an Apple product just an FYI.

[Pouria]

Windows 7 overtakes XP as Mac OS X passes Vista

More than three years since its release, Windows 7 is finally the world's most popular desktop operating system, according to new figures.

by Zack Whittaker September 3, 2012 1:27 AM PDT

Windows 7 has overtaken Windows XP as the world's most popular desktop operating system, marking the end of the venerable OS' reign over the PC world.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Windows 7's market share stands at 42.76 percent compared with Windows XP's 42.5 percent, according to figures from Web-tracking company Net Applications for the month of August.

Microsoft has seen Windows 7 's share rise by roughly 1 percentage point month-on-month for around the past year -- about the same level of decline seen in Windows XP -- while Vista's share has remained static at around 6 percent over the past quarter.

Not all web tracking companies agree on when Windows 7 became the dominant OS: StatCounter reported Windows 7 overtaking XP almost a year ago , and now puts Windows 7's overall market share at over the 50 percent mark.

Windows 8, which was made available as a pre-release preview earlier this year, has a 0.23 percent market share, according to Net Applications.

Overall, Windows' share of the desktop market stands dwarfs that of its rivals at 92 percent.

However, there's also good news for Apple in the August stats: the total Mac OS X user base now outstrips that of Windows Vista. Apple's combined share of the desktop market -- counting versions 10.4 and after of OS X -- Apple has a 7.11 percent share, while Windows Vista takes 6.1 percent.

http://news.cnet.com...x-passes-vista/

[TOMapleLaughs]

Never made much sense that OS's were always so damn expensive.

[Pouria]

BTW - Apple is no longer a computer company - they are a consumer electronics company.

I don't know if it's true today, but I read a few years ago that Apple loses money on every Mac they sell - if it wasn't for their consumer electronics division they would have went bankrupt a long time ago. Jobs saw that - that's why, love him or hate him - he was a great visionary and paved the way for Apple to succeed.

For the record, I'm not an Apple fan at all - goes back to the feud between Jobs and Gates a long time ago and how Jobs was suing MS for "copying" his GUI - and later it was determined that the idea for the GUI, Jobs himself "stole" from Xerox.

[Pouria]

Never made much sense that OS's were always so damn expensive.

[Pouria]

I will also add that Microsft supports its business level OSes for a period of TEN years, generally speaking. Windows 7 Pro is supported until 2014 with mainstream support and 2019 as extended support. If Windows 8 Pro follows past trends it will get extended support until 2022!

Apple support is a joke in comparison which is one reason why almost all business uses Windows and not OS X. Another reason is that Windows has at least 10X the software available.

[Watermelons]

The slow and hesitant adoption to Windows Vista and 7 are proof in the pudding of the lack of confidence in the last two operating systems. This will only continue as a trend for so long before businesses start hiring more Linux and Mac developers/techs. You can toss around the word "fact" all you like, if that makes you feel better about your position, that doesn't change your vision being a utopian one, and three responses in, rather fanatical.

[bjh]

Windows 8 is quite brilliant in my opinion.

There is a new level of usability for people who aren't as computer-savvy, but the classic windows usability and customization are always close-by.

I tinkered around with the Microsoft Surface and it is a really nice tablet. The possibilities are endless really once developers have had a chance to catch up. The fact that you can easily use a regular Remote Desktop session on a windows tablet to access the regular interface of your desktop PC is one of a million exciting things with this OS.

The bottom line is the trend right now is innovation from every company that isn't Apple. Apple is in a holding pattern shall we say, making new iterations of old devices without much new just so they can cash in.

Either Apple will kick back into gear soon or people will truly start to notice.

Brilliant work by Microsoft in my opinion.