US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
    Business / Gadgets

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    (Agencies) Updated: 2014-04-03 09:00

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gestures as he speaks during his keynote address at the company's ''build'' conference in San Francisco, California April 2, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

    Microsoft Corp is to give away its Windows operating system to makers of smartphones and small tablets for consumers as it seeks to make more of an impact on those fast-growing markets and counter the massive success of Google Inc's free Android platform.

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    Microsoft's move, announced at its annual developers conference in San Francisco, is an attempt to broaden the small user base of mobile versions of Windows, in the hope that more customers will end up using Microsoft's money-making, cloud-based services such as Skype and Office.

    Up to now, Microsoft has charged phone and tablet makers between $5 and $15 per device to use its Windows system, as it has done successfully at higher prices for many years with Windows on personal computers. Hardware makers factor the cost of that into the sale price of each device.

    That model has been obliterated in the past few years by the fast adoption of Google's Android system for phones and tablets, which hardware makers quickly embraced and now accounts for more than 75 percent of all smartphones sold last year. Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad account for most of the rest of the mobile computing market.

    By contrast, Windows-powered phones held only 3 percent of the global smartphone market last year. Windows tablets have only about 2 percent of the tablet market, according to tech research firm Gartner.

    Free money

    Microsoft's move to make Windows free for some consumer devices bucks a central tenet of Bill Gates' original philosophy, that software should be paid for, which led to Microsoft's massive financial success over the last four decades. But analysts said it is a realistic reaction to the runaway success of free Android.

    "Microsoft is facing challenges on the mobile and tablet fronts and need to change their strategy to move the growth needle, this is a good and logical first step," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

    Windows will be free for companies making phones and tablets with screen sizes under nine inches for the consumer market. A license fee will still apply for business devices.

    It comes a week after new Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella unveiled new versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications for Apple Inc's iPad. A year's free subscription to Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 service will be offered on the new devices running the free Windows, Microsoft said.

    Both moves show that Microsoft is now more interested in gaining market share for its cloud-based services such as Office on any platform or device, rather than its traditional approach of putting Windows at the center of everything it does and extending its influence from there.

    In the new era of mobile computing, Nadella acknowledged Microsoft's underdog status.

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    Microsoft to offer Windows for free on phones, tablets

    Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

    Hot Topics

    Editor's Picks
    ...
    ...
    免费无码一区二区三区蜜桃 | 国产成人三级经典中文| 亚洲韩国精品无码一区二区三区 | 2019亚洲午夜无码天堂| 久久久久av无码免费网| 免费A级毛片无码A∨中文字幕下载| 人妻中文字幕无码专区| 中文字幕精品久久| 亚洲欧美综合在线中文| 国产精品无码日韩欧| 国产高清无码二区 | 欧美激情中文字幕| 中文字幕乱妇无码AV在线| 本免费AV无码专区一区| 无码精品国产一区二区三区免费| 成人午夜精品无码区久久 | 中文无码制服丝袜人妻av| 最近的中文字幕大全免费8| 中文字幕精品无码一区二区三区| 波多野结衣中文字幕久久| 伊人久久无码精品中文字幕| 久久无码人妻精品一区二区三区| 久久久久久久亚洲Av无码| 中文字幕在线无码一区二区三区| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区66| 高清无码中文字幕在线观看视频| 久久久久久久亚洲Av无码| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区99仓本| 伊人久久无码中文字幕| 亚洲精品无码高潮喷水在线| 永久免费AV无码网站国产| 免费a级毛片无码a∨免费软件 | 公和熄小婷乱中文字幕| 色综合中文字幕| 乱人伦中文视频高清视频| 欧美一级一区二区中文字幕 | 国产日韩AV免费无码一区二区三区 | 人妻丰满熟妞av无码区| 乱色精品无码一区二区国产盗| 精品无码一区二区三区爱欲| 成在人线av无码免费高潮水|