Reuters recently reported that Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella, set out Microsoft’s strategy for securing a greater share of the mobile computing market. This includes licensing Windows for free on some consumer devices and developing a voice assistant similar to Apple’s Siri,
A paid licence fee will still apply to business devices, however Windows will be free for consumer phones and tablets with screen sizes under nine inches.
Microsoft also announced a voice-activated phone assistant called Cortana, to compete with Apple’s Siri. The tool will allow users to verbally command a number of functions, including search the Web, set reminders and make calls. While still in beta, Cortana will soon be standard on Windows phones,.
Microsoft’s attempt to applied to charge Windows Phone hardware partners between $5 and $15 per device, failed to get market adoption and allowed Google to penetate with with its Android OS.
Microsoft’s strategy led to more expensive phones and a small user base, that did not generate adequate revenue ma from services like Skype and Office.
Microsoft now seems set to align itself with the mobile era with a version of Office for Apple’s iPad. Analysts believe this could add over $1bn per year in extra subscription revenue.
Nadella in a question-and-answer session at the developer conference said. “We are not coming at this as some incumbent trying to do the next version of Windows; we are going to come at this by innovating in every dimension.”
The so called ‘Third platform’ brings together four technologies that are driving fundamental operational and architectural changes to enterprise ICT frameworks: social, mobile, analytics (big data) and cloud. BYOD is also a factor as users have access to non corporate applications Some of these tools are adopted by conscious choice; others are changes that happen to organisations outside their control. For example, companies cannot stop customers tweeting about bad service. Nor can they stop employees from adopting the smartphone of their choice, at least not without a resultant impact on business performance.
IT strategies need to factor in Third Platform changes – because competitors are already doing so.
For example the number of smartphone shipments is expected to grow by over a billion units in emerging markets. For example a mobile banking hugely for the rest of the decade.
