Vista users allowed to move house just once

Stan Beer
Friday, 13 October 2006 22:26

Opinion and Analysis

In spite of piracy, how was Microsoft able to increase its Windows XP revenues and earnings by between 8% and 9% in the past year, even though it has not had a major product upgrade in five years?

Obviously Microsoft would prefer double digit growth on sales of Windows, However, rather than face the fact that an operating system, like office productivity software, is now a commodity item for which users would rather not pay exhorbitant amounts of money, Microsoft is trying to wring every last dollar that it can out of a user base that has been backed into a corner.

A problem for Microsoft is that this strategy could easily backfire. Users are already balking at the high prices Microsoft is asking for Vista. Talk of even more exhorbitant prices for Office 2007 is circulating. Being asked to pay more for basic software than for the cost of a computer is causing resentment. Being told that you can't freely move that software off one machine and on to another may cause outrage.

Already forums are abuzz with outraged users advising each other to pay their local geek a couple of hundred bucks to install one of the popular free Linux distributions on their computers. users are advising each other to buy Macs - anything to get away from the restrictions Microsoft intends to impose on the use of its software.

Why Microsoft feels the need to pursue its draconian path is not entirely clear. However, the company has shown until that it is not able to make money from anything other than its operating systems, office productivity software and database products. Everything else makes a loss and growth in both Windows and Office is slowing dramatically.

The fact that Microsoft feels the need to impose severe restrictions on users of its new generation software products may well indicate that the software company does not have confidence that the new products will reinvigorate the growth that has been lacking recent years. If so, it is doubtful that the strategy will work. You can only push users so far before they start to look for alternatives where they will not be accused of being software pirates.