Microsoft rallies Windows for price war with Android
Microsoft rallies Windows for price war with Android
Posted: 28 Feb 2014
Dirt-cheap Windows PCs and tablets are coming, and it's all thanks to Google's growing low-price threat.
Android tablets are eating the world, Chromebooks have been gobbling up market share in both the commercial and sub-$300 segments, and once-loyal PC builders are even dabbling with "Droidbooks" and Android-based all-in-ones. On the other side of the coin, Windows tablets have struggled to pick up steam, and the PC market has been sinking ever since the iPad saw the light of day.
Microsoft made two moves this weekend to counter the small but growing rebellion. First came news of the company reportedly cutting the cost of Windows 8 licenses to a mere $15 for devices sold under $250. Then on Sunday, Microsoft confirmed the long-rumored Windows 8.1 update, which essentially halved the system requirements for Windows devices.
Yes, folks, Microsoft's sick of losing customers to Google—and a price war is brewing.
Microsoft is never going to win an outright price war. Why? Android == $0.00, the beauty of free and open source software (when it's not fragmented 6 ways to sunday).
And as long as Android provides a superior user experience to Windows 8(.1), well... yeah.
I want to cheer Microsoft on and whatever, been using Windows since I first started learning about computers after all, but they are simply going at this "war" against Android wrong in every single way possible.
Selling a Windows license puts money into Microsoft's account just once; service subscriptions and purchases have the potential to pay off in perpetuity... especially given the deep hooks SkyDrive has sunk into Windows 8.
Hi there
Having Windows on mobile devices might revive Ms's flagging mobile device sales to corporates.
If an enterprise has a Windows based server / application platform having Windows mobile devices makes this much more attractive to I.T managers etc. Ms could potentially fill the void left by Blackberry too.
The new Windows phones are quite OK to use --there's also enough apps too -- my main gripe is that the HANDSETS themselves generally aren't as nice as say Samsung S4/S5 or IPhone.
I'm rapidly getting pi***d off with Android -- so much bloat that you need to scroll 4 or 5 pages of apps before you even get to any you have installed yourself. Android security is also a bit of a joke too.
Windows IMO brings a bit of sanity back to the mobile platform -- I'm sure NICE cool handsets will follow the Nokia Lumia -- if I could have a screen the size and resolution of the S4/ S5 with the nice feel of the phone in a Windows phone I'd get one at a shot. (And I'm not the only one either). Do at least TRY a Windows phone (the new ones not the old W7 phones).
I'd also like the Wireless share screen facility too -- I often play movies from a remote computer to a TV using the remote file explorer on the phone to browse the remote computer and then with the screen share play on a nice large TV. The S4 supports full HDMI HD TV via the Wi-Fi thingy.
Not sure if Windows phone supports that type of application / device -- it's very useful -- especially in hotels where you can't be bothered to connect a laptop to the TV to watch something decent. External 64GB micro sd card also useful too - can store plenty of music / movies on that too.
(I can't say I'm bothered by 4K video capture or mega zillion pixel cameras though -- for proper photography I'm still old fashioned enough to use a edcent DSLR with proper lenses. !!!!
Computer Type: PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Custom built, several laptops HP/ASUS OS: Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers CPU: Intel i7 Intel i5 Memory: 8GB, 16GB Graphics Card: On Motherboard Sound Card: Realtek HD audio Monitor(s) Displays: Apple Cinema display, Samsung LCD Screen Resolution: 1920 X 1080 Mouse: Toshiba wireless laser Hard Drives: 4 X 1TB SATA Internet Speed: > 20MB up
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