On July 11, 2013, Microsoft announced that it will reorganize the current eight product divisions into four new divisions to better promote cooperation among various departments, aiming to reflect the new concept of "one Microsoft, one strategy."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned in a memo:

"This decision today will allow us to better implement our strategy to provide a range of equipment and services that better meet people's needs and the most valuable business development and services for their businesses." Steve Ballmer said "We will focus on four engineering areas: operating system (OS), applications (Apps), cloud computing and equipment. We will maintain a dynamic separation, because it also requires special focus to reflect greater opportunities. We will integrate our technology into these departments and integrate the resources that are currently under the current architecture, such as cloud infrastructure, operating systems, and e-mail."

From Ballmer's description of Microsoft's strategy, it can be seen that Microsoft's future strategic focus is equipment and services. "Operating system (OS), applications (App), cloud computing and devices" are linked to the current Apple and Google business models. Apple uses its iOS operating system in all terminal products through a series of terminal products such as Mac, iPhone and iPad. Users download applications through the App Store and use cloud services to seamlessly connect applications of various terminal products. Google is mainly focused on the field of mobile terminals. It will open the Android operating system to create an application ecosystem around the Android system, while acquiring Motorola and extending its tentacles to mobile terminals. In the future, Google hopes to embed its applications such as search, Youtube and other applications into the mobile client, thus forming Google's mobile ecosystem.

So what resources does Microsoft have?

From the operating system point of view, Microsoft has Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox. Windows is the main operating system of the PC. At the same time, Microsoft has successfully ported the Windows operating system to the terminal of the mobile client, ie Windows Phone. In the operating system, Windows and iOS are applicable to PCs and mobile terminals. Cloud computing has Azure, from the application point of view, Microsoft has Bing, Skype and so on, from the device point of view, Microsoft has an Xbox, and last year released the Tablet PC Surface, the integration of operating systems, applications, cloud services and devices Some experience has been tried.

Corresponding to Apple, Microsoft has application advantages, but the short board is a mobile terminal device. Compared to Google, Microsoft has the advantages of a PC operating system, and the short board is also a mobile terminal device and an operating system ecosystem.

Microsoft's strategy seems to be bigger than the current Apple and Google. Microsoft expects its built devices to further integrate into people's daily lives, whether it be work or entertainment, whether online or mobile, not on PCs or tablets, and expects to create new and extraordinary experiences for customers on these devices.

Microsoft's strategic change is a last resort.

Due to the impact of tablet PCs, the global PC market is weak, and Microsoft's performance, which depends on the service fee of the WINDOWS system in the PC, will naturally be affected. As the PC market shrinks and tablet PCs and PCs shrink, Microsoft's advantage in PC operating systems is eroding little by little. At the same time, in the field of mobile Internet, Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system has not been affected by Apple's iOS and Google's Android system due to its cooperation with Nokia. The sales of the Surface tablet are not satisfactory. Microsoft is facing the danger of marginalization.

Against this background, Microsoft hopes to take advantage of its advantages in the traditional PC market and maintain the advantages of the PC market through the integration of the PC market with mobile client terminals and penetrate the mobile client through the advantages of the PC. This strategy “provides a series of equipment and services that better meet people’s needs, and expands and services the most valuable businesses for their businesses”. According to the foregoing analysis, such a strategy is not a pioneering strategy. It is just a strategy to transplant Apple and Google. It is only a strategy based on the advantages of an operating system with a PC terminal.

What needs to be done in the future for Microsoft to achieve its goals?

1. Windows and Windows Phone get through Once Windows and Windows Phone are connected, it means that the difference between PC, tablet and smart devices will be reduced. Users can complete work and leisure work on one device. There does not need to be a switch between a PC and a mobile terminal device as it is currently. The opening of Windows and Windows Phone will depend on Microsoft's cloud computing capabilities, especially in the future to store a large amount of PC data in the cloud, and to achieve interoperability of online Internet and mobile Internet devices, and interoperability between related applications. .

2. The platform is open in the future, the Windows operating system will become a platform, there are application stores, all developers can develop applications on it. Of course, it is unclear whether Microsoft's open platform policy is based on the open mode of Google Android, or just the open port mode of Apple iOS.

3. Microsoft's strategy for terminal devices is focused on "devices and services," and the form of provision to meet user needs has shifted to a wider range of devices and services, creating devices and services that are attractive and integrated. Microsoft's strategy puts new demands on hardware development and design. The traditional advantage of Microsoft lies in operating systems and applications. Although Microsoft has released Surface, it is clear that Microsoft's experience in hardware devices is still somewhat inadequate. The development of the hardware of the terminal device until the design will have an extremely important influence on the future Microsoft's equipment and service strategy. Therefore, I personally think that in the near future, Microsoft will start acquisitions in the terminal equipment PC or smart machine field.

How does such a strategy affect Microsoft?

In the near future, Windows and Windows Phone will open up, and the differences between PCs and tablets will be reduced and even integrated into one device. This raises the question of whether the Windows operating system, which will bring huge profits to Microsoft every year, will continue its original fee-charging model, or whether it will need to change. From the current tablet and smart machines, the operating system does not have a separate quotation. The future upgrade of the system is free of charge. The price of the operating system will be integrated into the price of the terminal equipment. Therefore, in the future, Microsoft may cancel the Windows operating system's charges and use it to charge users, dividing the model into collaborators. Whether or not application fees can make up for cancellation of operating system charges will be difficult to say in the future. One thing is clear: Microsoft's application fees will not have an operating system monopoly advantage. Microsoft will be transformed from an operating system and application service company into an application service operating platform. This also means that the monopoly advantages of Microsoft's operating systems that have been in the PC industry for many years will no longer exist, and Microsoft will face direct competition from Apple, Google and Amazon.

What about the social impact of Microsoft's strategy?

At the same time, once Microsoft cuts into the device terminal and connects Windows with the Windows Phone, this will mean that the boundary between the traditional PC and the tablet will no longer exist, and the PC may be combined with the tablet into a device. It is possible that PC computers will die in the future. This is not a good news for Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Of course, following the historical trend, cutting into tablet computers quickly may be an opportunity. It can be imagined that with the participation of these PC giants, the competition in the future tablet PC market will be even fiercer.

The combination of the functions of PCs and tablets will also cause the industry to think about the reengineering of the computer system. Or in the near future, devices that differ from the “OS, APP, and cloud computing” models will be shipped. Health.

Even Microsoft, which has long enjoyed monopolistic resource advantages in the PC industry, is clearly at a loss under the impact of new technologies and new models. Its moat is already falling. It is imperative for Microsoft to make use of the surviving gifted, adapt to the new model, and rebuild the moat. But the moat's reconstruction is not to imitate other people's existing models. The real innovation means that the computer system is rebuilt. Once the boundaries between PC and tablet are broken by other competitors, Microsoft's reengineering moat will no longer be able to stop the historical flood. Rolled over.