R.I.P. Windows
By purchasing Nokia’s smartphone division, Microsoft has killed its signature strategy.
Stephen Elop is stepping down as Nokia president and CEO as Microsoft
purchases the Finnish phone-maker. By integrating the hardware and
software sides of the Windows Phone, Microsoft is inverting—and thus
killing— the Windows business model.
Photo by Albert Gea/Reuters
Windows is dead. Let’s all salute it—pour out a glass for it, burn a
CD for it, reboot your PC one last time. Windows had a good run. For a
time, it powered the world. But that era is over. It was killed by the
unlikeliest of collaborations—Microsoft’s ancient enemies working over
decades, in concert: Steve Jobs, Linus Torvalds, and most of all, two
guys named Larry and Sergey.
Late on Monday, Microsoft announced its unsurprising, $7.2 billion
plan to buy Nokia’s smartphone division. Nokia is the world’s largest
manufacturer of phones that run Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating
system (which is a bit like pointing out that, at 5-foot-6, I’m the
tallest member of my immediate family). Microsoft is buying Nokia in
order to control both the hardware and software in its devices; this
move, Microsoft promises, will improve the phones themselves and make
them easier to sell.
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