A small step for Win8.1 free Microsoft's big step

Microsoft's Windows is free!

At the Build2014 conference in early April, Microsoft announced that it would waive the licensing fees for Windows Phone smartphones and Windows tablets under 9 inches. Last week, Microsoft announced the release of Windows 8.1 with Bing for OEMs. The only requirement is that the default search engine of IE should be set to Bing (the manufacturer can't change it, but the user can freely modify the default search of IE. engine).

Why Microsoft is launching a free version of Windows

Microsoft is being forced to help OEMs launch cheap Windows devices to increase competitiveness, even for Windows tomorrow. If the Surface is designed to give traditional PC manufacturers a way to design, then the Windows license fee is exempted by various means to save the actual cost for OME. Microsoft can't watch traditional PC makers not playing with themselves, because Windows OEMs are getting more and more difficult, and even have announced their withdrawal from the consumer PC market.

Service charges, free platform

Win8.1 has opened the first free of Windows, but its free is limited, such as equipment requiring 9 inches or less, or when shipped from the factory Use Bing as the default search engine for IE. So, what kind of free form will Win9 and even Windows 10 be? Must be a full free version of Windows for "Service Charges, Platform Free".

It's hard to compete with free. Under the pressure of Apple and Google, Microsoft is pushing Windows to become a free platform, prompting users to accept paid subscription services like Office365.

talk about Windows and Microsoft's next

From Microsoft announced the launch of General Assembly Build2014 plans across Windows applications and Windows Phone platforms on, we can foresee will be the desktop Caozuojitong and Windows9 The combination of mobile operating systems, that is, Windows and Windows Phone will soon share the same app store, the same app. A Microsoft, a Windows.

Aiming at the corporate goal of “equipment and service”, Windows is a small step for free, which is a big step for Microsoft to “turn around”.