With Windows 10, Microsoft has no right to make mistakes – Canoeing

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft officially launched Wednesday a new Windows 190 countries, with which he hopes to forget the mistakes of the previous version of the operating system and its failure to negotiate the turn phones

The mobile revolution Microsoft promised to launch Windows 8 in late 2012, did not take place. Consumers, enterprises and mobile applications designers have shunned the software. And the US group has yet announced in early 7800 job cuts, mostly in his Nokia phone subsidiary which had already borne a large part of the 18,000 cuts agreed last year during a social history.

Beyond the symbolic reintroduction of the “start menu”, whose disappearance Windows 8 had thrown many longtime users, Windows 10 is supposed to redress the balance and equip a billion devices to 2018. Across all versions, Windows now has 1.5 billion users worldwide, mainly on PC.

Very late to the mobile

Unlike its predecessors which declined in different variants depending on the type of target device, Windows 10 is intended as universal, as adapted to the PC to the phone via the Xbox video game console or virtual reality goggles.

” The hope is to attract application developers, especially for phones where Microsoft has difficulty “but are” always strategic, “said Rob Enderle, an independent analyst in the technology sector.

Failure a sufficiently compelling catalog of applications, Windows phones today do not match for the Apple iPhone or multiple brands phones running Android, the Google operating system.

“They are very far behind in the mobile market and it would take considerable effort and time, and a real change in thinking of the other actors (as developers) for Windows phones really gaining ground” however, warns Steve Kleynhans, a Gartner analyst.

Microsoft also shows “pragmatic” by opening certain products to competitors ecosystem with its Office application for iPad for example, he recalls.

Another break: Windows 10 will be continuous and automatic updates after purchase, without waiting as today the release of the next version

“Everything is going towards. of building a relationship “with the consumer, with the idea of ​​Windows as” a permanent service that evolves, “said Frank Gillett, a Forrester analyst.

New Blood for the PC?

To speed adoption, Microsoft will also offer for the first time Windows 10 as a free update for users of previous versions (Windows 7 and 8). Computer manufacturers continue, them paying to preinstall the software on their devices, licenses which represent the bulk of revenue Redmond Group.

Steve Kleynhans, Microsoft gives consumers a ” free sample of the new operating system “, hoping to convince them to buy a new computer.

The global PC market, Microsoft’s anchor, is in crisis for more than three years, cannibalized by tablets and phones. Sales have declined further in the second quarter, from 9.5% to 11.8%, according to Gartner and IDC firms.

“The PC ecosystem has been under pressure recently, but Windows 10 will expand our economic opportunities, “assured last week the Microsoft boss, Satya Nadella.

Steve Kleynhans, Windows 10″ will have a great impact on the appearance of the PC we buy, “should” accelerate “the tendency to equip features such as biometric identification or touch controls, it is intended to operate as the voice assistant Cortana (rival Apple’s Siri) or Edge Browser (replacing Internet Explorer).

The analyst expects however “no huge impact on sales. People replace their PCs when they have a reason to do so. Windows 10 and alone is not a reason, “at least in the short term. It notes, however, that businesses, particularly refractory to Windows 8, will face quite quickly at the end of support for Windows 7, which “increases the pressure to move to Windows 10″

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