'Free' Windows 10 Reveals Its Expensive Secret
Windows 10 is free.
This is a statement which makes many people uneasy. After all Windows didn’t used to be free and nothing in life is ever really free, right? So when will the real cost of Windows 10 be revealed? Well now we know and it hits both customers and Microsoft in very different ways…
Let’s break them down:
1. Windows 10 Cost to Microsoft: $1.5 Billion
If you ever doubted Microsoft was taking a huge hit to give users Windows 10 for free, doubt no longer. This month the company announced its Q3 results and revealed this carved a massive $1.5 billion hole in its revenues.
For context, this ties in almost exactly with the kind of income earned by previous versions of Windows. For example, in its Q2 2010 results Windows 7 accounted for $1.71 billion in revenue and the PC market has constricted since then. But there’s a but.
This income is “deferred” across the next three years. In English? Microsoft expects to get much of it back. How do you do that with a ‘free’ operating system? This brings us to point two…
2. Windows 10 Cost to Users: Choice
The most obvious point to address is Windows 10 will not always be free.
Microsoft has long stated Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will enjoy a free upgrade window during Windows 10’s first year of release (July 29, 2015 to July 29, 2016). It has been implied that after this date the standard retail costs will apply ($119 for Windows 10 Home, $199 for Windows 10 Pro).
And yet this remains a grey area as Microsoft refuses to explicitly state this is what will happen.
Why? Because it gives Microsoft the option to use the free period to drive upgrades then extend it – possibly forever – ‘at the last minute’. So that’s not the total solution to getting money back. Neither is Windows 10 Enterprise as it has never been free and therefore isn’t part of lost costs.
Instead where Microsoft will recover its lost Windows 10 income is through a much less popular route: Control.
The reason Microsoft is hardlining Windows 10 upgrades for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users (sometimes with amusing results – see video below), is the new operating system gives the company control over its users like never before.
Source: Forbes Tech
This is a statement which makes many people uneasy. After all Windows didn’t used to be free and nothing in life is ever really free, right? So when will the real cost of Windows 10 be revealed? Well now we know and it hits both customers and Microsoft in very different ways…
Let’s break them down:
1. Windows 10 Cost to Microsoft: $1.5 Billion
If you ever doubted Microsoft was taking a huge hit to give users Windows 10 for free, doubt no longer. This month the company announced its Q3 results and revealed this carved a massive $1.5 billion hole in its revenues.
Making Windows 10 Free comes at a huge cost to Microsoft. Image credit: Microsoft
Recommended by Forbes
2. Windows 10 Cost to Users: Choice
The most obvious point to address is Windows 10 will not always be free.
Microsoft has long stated Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will enjoy a free upgrade window during Windows 10’s first year of release (July 29, 2015 to July 29, 2016). It has been implied that after this date the standard retail costs will apply ($119 for Windows 10 Home, $199 for Windows 10 Pro).
And yet this remains a grey area as Microsoft refuses to explicitly state this is what will happen.
Why? Because it gives Microsoft the option to use the free period to drive upgrades then extend it – possibly forever – ‘at the last minute’. So that’s not the total solution to getting money back. Neither is Windows 10 Enterprise as it has never been free and therefore isn’t part of lost costs.
Instead where Microsoft will recover its lost Windows 10 income is through a much less popular route: Control.
The reason Microsoft is hardlining Windows 10 upgrades for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users (sometimes with amusing results – see video below), is the new operating system gives the company control over its users like never before.
Source: Forbes Tech
No comments