To stem the decline in PC sales, Microsoft is reportedly considering offering cheaper PCs with a special cloud-service-oriented, ad-supported version of Windows. A false good idea ?
Times are tough for Microsoft, and just look at the results for its first quarter of 2022 to realize it. Indeed, if its turnover is still on the rise, it is the quarter with the weakest growth for five years. The sale of Windows PCs has its share of responsibility, Microsoft selling less of its licenses to manufacturers. The launch of Windows 11 in fall 2021 may not have helped. Indeed, the operating system is struggling for the moment to convince, sometimes showing itself to be a little capricious: incompatibility with old PCs and certain peripherals, bugs, slowdowns… No wonder many users prefer to stay or even return on Windows 10 (see our practical sheet)! To resume growth, the firm seems to be working on a new idea: PCs low-cost financed by advertising.
Inexpensive PCs that work with subscriptions and advertising
This is a job offer, identified by WinBuzzer, who spilled the beans. Microsoft is currently looking for a senior director of software engineering whose mission will be to work on the “futur of personal computing “and lead a capable team”explore web and cloud experiences in Windows“. Before being quickly modified, the announcement explained that he would be called upon to produce “Low-cost PC to revenue generated by advertising and subscriptions“. With these elements, we can therefore easily imagine a computer at a much lower price which would be partly financed by the regular display of advertisements and a subscription to Microsoft 365, the suite which allows access to the software of the suite. Office – which is bowing out after 32 years of loyal service – to Microsoft Teams and OneDrive via the cloud for a monthly or annual payment. economical, because Microsoft’s Surface range would not be sufficient to cover all needs.
In any case, this would be consistent with the line of conduct displayed by Microsoft during its last years. The firm has already changed its business model by replacing the sale of software with cloud subscriptions and has already tried displaying advertisements. Besides the fact that it provides ads for the new Netflix subscription, it has already integrated advertisements for its web browser or for OneDrive, and Team and Microsoft Edge have already displayed small windows to promote the company’s services. It even brought up an ad for the writing assistance extension, Microsoft Writing, in File Explorer. The company immediately backtracked and apologized, saying it was an error due to a planned internal test. It remains to be seen whether this strong comeback of advertisements – and not only at Microsoft – will be well received by users or whether it will annoy and antagonize them…