Recently, Microsoft has made a number of unexpected steps: free version of Windows and Windows Phone for users and manufacturers, free version of Office for iOS and Android, the absorption of free mobile applications. All this greatly changes the company's business strategy, but how it is going to make money?
Traditionally, Microsoft made a profit from the sale of software licenses such as Windows or Office businesses, manufacturers and end users. This strategy has been extremely successful and has ensured that companies in the software giant, and in fact a monopoly of the PC market. But with the proliferation of mobile platforms iOS and Android Redmond have to change strategy to maintain its influence in the future.
The new strategy includes four key steps: attraction, engagement, recruitment and monetization, writes 3news . Attraction involves the free distribution of the product, as is the case with the Office for the iPad. Involvement aims to bind man to the product, including through the use of other attractive products overall ecosystem. Recruitment - it's just looking for new members for the expansion cycle. And finally, at the stage of monetization company seeks to identify users who are willing to pay for a subscription to advanced versions of products and services.
All of this sounds simple, but Microsoft has not traditionally been strong in this model of distribution of products. Google has been successful thanks to the free provision of services and the receipt of funds from advertising, but Microsoft's approach implies that people will want to pay for advanced versions of applications and services, which are used to (though advertising revenue, of course, are not going anywhere).
Microsoft marketer Chris Kaposella at Microsoft Convergence conference showed a slide illustration of three major ecosystems in the market with key assets of each of them.According to him, Apple is concentrating marketing efforts on a very small number of products like the iPhone and iPad, but since all devices are created with a view to working together as a result of the purchase of one entails the acquisition of another without the marketing efforts. This is very effective, and Microsoft is going to stick to a similar strategy.
For example, the tablet Surface Pro 3 is made with deep integration of OneNote, Microsoft noticed as a result of a large increase in the use of OneNote. Personal assistant Cortana actively uses Bing, thereby destroying the dependence of the users search services Google.The same applies to the integration of Skype in the Outlook.com - it helps to sell VoIP-paid subscription.
Microsoft recognizes that while the interconnections between its own products are weak and lag far behind those in the ecosystem of Apple, but over time, the company is going to catch up. Universal application integration Cortana, OneDrive and so on in various platforms and applications - all this steps to strengthen ecosystem Microsoft.