igaming Windows applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFree Money<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Microsoft\u2019s move to make Windows free for some consumer devices bucks a central tenet of Bill Gates\u2019 original philosophy, that software should be paid for, which led to Microsoft\u2019s massive financial success over the last four decades. But analysts said it is a realistic reaction to the runaway success of free Android.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMicrosoft 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,\u201d said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It comes a week after new Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella unveiled new versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications for Apple Inc\u2019s iPad. A year\u2019s free subscription to Microsoft\u2019s cloud-based Office 365 service will be offered on the new devices running the free Windows, Microsoft said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.Slideshow ( 3 images )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the new era of mobile computing, Nadella acknowledged Microsoft\u2019s underdog status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are going to innovate with a challenger mindset,\u201d said Nadella in a question and answer session at the developer conference. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nadella did not have a snappy answer to the question of what Microsoft\u2019s overarching mission now was, after it had achieved its original goal of putting a computer on every desk and in every home. Instead he elaborated on remarks he made last week about the importance of mobile devices as everything we do becomes digitized and connected to the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur vision, simply put, is to thrive in this world of mobile first, cloud first,\u201d said Nadella. \u201cOur goal is to really build platforms, create the best end-user experiences, the best developer opportunities and IT infrastructure for this ubiquitous computing world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siri Rival<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Also at the gathering, Microsoft formally announced it has developed a voice activated phone assistant feature called Cortana, a direct rival to Apple\u2019s Siri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The feature has been rumored for some months and a test version was demonstrated at the event by Joe Belfiore, a Windows Phone executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cortana service, which can take verbal instructions to search the Web, set alarms, make calls and a host of other actions, is still in beta testing but will soon be a standard feature on Windows phones, said Belfiore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He announced that the latest version of Microsoft\u2019s smartphone software, called Windows Phone 8.1, will be rolled out to consumers as a downloadable upgrade in the next few months, and new phones running the software will be in stores by late April or early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by David Gregorio and Andrew Hay<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft Corp is to give away its Windows operating system to makers of smartphones and small tablets for consumers.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-microsoft-news","8":"category-windows-news","9":"cs-entry","10":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windowscommunity.fr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}