Just have to love that MS is saying nothing definitive. . .

Hi there.

You don't have to be a "Prophet" to say that Ms is working hard on the next version of Windows -- I'd be worried - especially if I were either a direct or indirect (via unit trusts etc) stockholder of Ms if they WEREN'T in spite of them saying they are going to "de-emphasize" windows in the future --in plain English try and generate other revenue streams rather than be too reliant on Windows.

Sometimes these CEO's etc of large corporations should either say something SENSIBLE or just keep their mouths tightly closed.

With a name like Prophet at least he could have given something of a more enlightening statement than just quote the "Bleedin' Obvious".

@Jodi Thornton -- If Ms don't know at this stage what they want to roll out then I suggest firing the TOP guys - they obviously know what they DON'T want -- as ex Nokia employees are finding out to their cost - although as a large corporation Ms isn't generally known as a ruthless employer -- making an Android device was a BIG mistake though and it seems it's always the Little guys who carry the can not those at the top who even if they do move on get paid huge bonuses etc.

Cheers
jimbo

They should forget about further Windows versions and start selling subscriptions for future support and updates to current versions. Instead of dumping XP sell subscription support, as an example.

I believe the only reason they keep with Metro is to generate revenue from apps, apps are pure profit makers for them, even the crummy ones.

alphanumeric, post: 34131, member: 152 said:

XP is history, time to get over it and move on. Even if they offered paid support many people wouldn't pay for it and end up running unpatched systems. Hello bot net. You'd also get the "but I already paid for it, now you want even more money" cries. I just don't see subscription support working for the consumer side. Microsoft generates revenue by selling newer versions of its software, that's the way it works. Adding newer features to older versions is a lot harder than just building them into a new version. Selling extended support is a novel idea but I just don't see Microsoft doing it any time soon for any of their retired operating systems. In a way you may actually get what you want though, if a Windows 365 comes about. If they release a purely subscription based version of Windows you would just keep renewing it to get further updates. How long they let you keep doing that before being required to update to a newer version who knows. All I can say is, be careful what you ask for.

Actually, the whole Subscription thing will happen.
Look at Office 365. for Home users.
Full blown Office 2013 Plus. All of it. for $99 a year.
You also get 1TB per person of OneDrive space.
You also get 10 licenses 5 Tablet and 5 PC or Mac
and if you use Skype, you get 60min a month.

That in of itself is a killer deal. Who has just one or 2 devices these days in a family. Not many.
So the cost is well worth it.

Now move that to a Unified Windows OS.
Desktop, Tablets, Laptops, (separate licensing for Phone and xBox)
$99 a year for 7 licenses per family. would be a hell of a deal on it's own.
1 for Desktop, the rest for Tablets and Laptops.
and MS would still be making money on devices, Phone, Tablets, xBox.

No the Desktop is not dead. People are just enamored with Tablets and Phablets right now.
You still need a real desktop to do some things more comfortably at home. So most will still have one.
But, that compliments all the other devices nicely.
I have 1x Laptop, 2 x Desktops, 2 x Surface Pro, 2 x Nokia Lumia Icons
Anything I do on one I can pretty much do on the others.
Files are easily transferred via OneDrive.

I would say no to a purely cloud OS, but how it is done with Office 365 would not be an issue.

In the long run, MS will make more money.

Then start throwing in Azure Apps with synch across all devices, which is coming.