It’s
been almost a year since new CEO Satya Nadella took the reins of
Microsoft. He has been trying to make some organisational and culutural
changes within the company ever since. Unlike his predecessors, Nadella
is on a ‘mobile-first, cloud-first’ war path and he is doing good so
far. Barring his “karma” faux pas, Nadella has been ticking all boxes
right with his efforts trying to bring things on track, be it free
Office app or the latest announcements at the Window 10 event.
Microsoft
seems to be slowly turning the table. We wouldn’t say the new
announcements have paved way for the company to grab a large chunk of
mobile share, but it has undoubtedly made some solid moves overall. If
things fall in place for Microsoft, it could no longer be a two-horse
race between Apple and Google.
There
is definitely a wave of change. Firstly, Microsoft has finally made its
new upgrade to Windows 8.1 free of charge. For the first time ever,
Windows 10 will also be a free upgrade for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and
Windows Phone 8.1 users, at least for the first year.
As
we noted earlier, Microsoft has taken a cue out of Apple’s book which
has been giving out OS X and iOS upgrades for free, to ensure that users
don’t have to shell out money for an OS. Google offers its Android
platform for free, too. Needless to say, this change is about charging
for value added services and access to apps, and not for operating
systems, just like its competitors.
In
fact, in the enterprise segment, the company also plans to explorer new
spaces with its all new Surface Hub. The Surface Hub is an 84-inch 4K
LED TV, meant for enterprise use thanks to its large touchscreen and the
fact that it runs Office 365. The Surface Hub is a large screen that
allows teams to collaborate. Integrated with Kinect sensor, it starts up
instantly, as soon as you approach the device. The interface has three
default options namely, a Skype call, a OneNote notebook, and a
connecting third-party devices. Read more here.
Another
piece of technology that makes the company standout is the Hololens. In
the past one year, Microsoft has been ensuring that it isn’t late to
the party and willing to quickly adapt to the possibly upcoming trends,
be it the smartwatch or the new Hololens. After all, augmented reality
is believed to be the next big thing.
“I
believe that virtual/augmented reality is the next platform for
computing, following the five earlier ones: mainframe, networked
minicomputers, PC, Internet, and mobile. Michael Abrash of Oculus — the
company Facebook bought for $2 billion — considers it the last platform,
as laid out in this great video, because all the previous experiences
can be embedded within it,” states Gigaom’s Stowe Boyd.
Microsoft
had tried to bounce back with its Windows Phone OS and Windows RT for
tablet. However, its decisions fell flat on its face. The company has
finally decided to bring seamless integration across its platforms.
Unity across operating systems is something that Apple and Google have
been going on about for sometime and Microsoft also clearly believes
that this is the way forward.
This
means, tablet users can forget the horror of having to deal with
something like a new Windows RT on their devices, which received
terrible user feedback. Windows 10 ensures that desktops, mobiles,
laptops, tablets, 2-in-1 devices all run the same Windows 10 OS, which
will be optimised based on the platform.
Microsoft
has also gone a step ahead of Apple by bringing its personal
voice-assistant Cortana to all Windows 10 devices, including desktops
and laptops, which is a massive plus point. It plans to integrate
Cortana in the Search Bar, which makes absolute sense, considering the
company is still the leader when it comes to desktop PCs.
There
have been several other announcements in the past that have helped the
company tread along the right path. One of the first announcements to
emerge from Nadella-run Microsoft has been Office apps for other
platforms like Android and iOS. Soon, Android and iOS users could
download Microsoft Office apps for free, without the need for an Office
365 subscription.
With
Nadella stressing on cross-platform and mobile, there’s no doubt that
what we are seeing is a different Microsoft. Whether the mobile bet
will pay off with Windows 10, of course, remains to be seen.
Posted by : Gizmeon
No comments:
Post a Comment