传微软有意免费提供移动版Windows

    据报道，微软（Microsoft）有意彻底改变自身移动战略，转而免费向移动设备制造商提供Windows移动版操作系统。

    周三，科技博客The Verge在报道中援引“了解微软公司计划”的匿名消息人士，称微软可能放弃Windows Phone和Windows RT的授权费收入，转而提供免费版本的Windows移动操作系统，以争取市场份额。显然，微软此举旨在增加从自身搜索广告、应用程序以及Skype、SkyDrive、Office等订阅服务中获得收入的机会。

    诺基亚（Nokia）是Windows手机操作系统最大的授权使用者（它在Windows手机市场上占据了高达80%的市场份额），而微软于今秋收购了诺基亚（Nokia）的手机业务，使得微软移动版Windows的授权费收入丢了一大半。而授权费是微软操作系统最大的收入来源。

    事实上，授权是微软的“立足之本”。公司成立初期，微软决定将MS-DOS以及后来的Windows授权给电脑厂商使用，认为这是主导个人电脑市场的最佳途径。苹果（Apple）采取了和它相反的策略，仅仅允许本品牌电脑搭载自身操作系统。最终微软胜出。直到互联网兴起，随后的移动设备大行其道，授权费收入才被广告费等其他来源的收入超越。而谷歌（Google）也随之主导了手机操作系统市场，并在平板电脑操作系统市场中占据了较大份额。谷歌进军移动业务是为了提升现有的广告销售业务。而此举确实收效明显。若微软果真提供免费版Windows，显然意在“师夷长技以制夷”。微软旨在尽可能多的抢夺谷歌在在线广告市场上占据的极高份额。

    如果微软真的有这个计划，它将标志着微软企业战略的重要转变，至少是在消费市场上的重要转变。同时，这也等于默认了它现行的移动市场战略效果不佳。

    归根到底，这个决定在于增加的广告收入和订阅服务收入是否足以弥补丢掉的授权费。这笔帐可不好算。微软的市场份额肯定会增长，但这可能还不够。毕竟，谷歌在移动市场上具有绝对优势，而苹果用户对于苹果手机和平板电脑产品的忠诚度极高，两项业务对苹果而言可谓利润丰厚。

    正如The Verge上的一位评论者所言：“微软不确定到底该学谷歌还是学苹果。”其实还有一种可能，那就是：在移动市场上，微软恐怕这两个都学不像，所谓邯郸学步是也。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航  

    Microsoft (MSFT) is reportedly considering a radical shift in its mobile strategy: offering its operating systems free to manufacturers of mobile devices.

    The Verge, quoting unnamed sources "familiar with Microsoft's plans" reported Wednesday that the company might trade in the revenues it gets from licensing Windows Phone and Windows RT by offering free versions of them in order to gain market share. The idea would be to increase opportunities to earn revenues from search ads as well as via Microsoft's apps and subscription services such as Skype, SkyDrive, and Office.

    Microsoft purchased Nokia's handset business this fall. Because Nokia was by far the largest Windows licensee for phones (it represents 80% of the Windows-powered handset market), a lot of that revenue has been lost anyway. Licensing fees make up the biggest source of revenue for Microsoft's operating systems.

    In fact, licensing is what built the company. In its early days, Microsoft decided that licensing MS-DOS, then Windows, to manufacturers was the best way to dominate the market for personal computers. Apple (AAPL) took the opposite tack, allowing its operating systems only on its own computers. Microsoft won that battle, and it wasn't until the rise of the popular Internet, and the subsequent explosion of mobile devices, that licensing became less important in the consumer market than other sources of revenue, such as ads. That's why Google (GOOG) was able to dominate the market for phone operating systems, and take up a sizable chunk of the tablet market. Google got into the mobile business to boost its existing business: ad sales. And it has worked. By offering free versions of Windows, Microsoft would be targeting Google by following that company's own strategy. Microsoft's main interest there is in taking away as much of Google's whopping-big share of the online ad market as possible.

    If Microsoft is indeed planning such a move, it would mark a big change in its corporate strategy, at least in the consumer market, as well as a tacit admission that its approach to the mobile market hasn't worked well enough.

    The decision will come down to whether the lost licensing fees would be made up for by increased revenues from ads and subscription services. That's not an easy calculation to make. Microsoft will surely gain market share, but that might not be enough, given Google's dominance, and the loyalty of Apple customers toward both phones and tablets, which for Apple are high-margin businesses.

    As one commenter on The Verge put it, "Microsoft isn't sure whether it should become Google or Apple." There is a third possibility: that in the mobile market, it will become neither.