What is a device and service company?

The last great reorganization of Microsoft was characterized by placing the different departments of the company around an idea: devices and services . It is an expression that we have heard and used many times in our articles.

What does it really mean that Microsoft is becoming a device and services company?

Before: Mere Software Company

Microsoft, historically, what it has done is build or buy a software product, and establish partnerships with different manufacturers who will be the ones take care of the hardware part.

In this way, the IBM, HP, Compaq, Acer or ASUS of turn are in charge of building the machines that will, ultimately, run the version of Windows of turn.

An example could be Xenix, the first operating system released by the company, which was never sold to the end user: always through from manufacturers, to whom it licensed the operating system.

Microsoft and its devices: unlucky

As we see, Microsoft has always been a software company that has collaborated more or less closely with other manufacturers so that they launched their products with Windows. Although on some occasions it has dared to launch its own devices

To give a few examples, Microsoft launched its line of MP3 players under the Zune name, as well as mobile phones such as the Kin One and Kin Two smartphones. These devices were never sold outside the United States due to their low acceptance.

The first blow that Microsoft made of devices was the console Xbox, and especially the second generation of this console. Although a video game console is still a niche product, aimed at a fairly specific audience ( although broad, on the other hand).

Surface is Microsoft's definitive foray into proprietary hardware, and while we can't say it's been a success for We can say that the Redmond company greatly determines the strategy that the company will follow from now on.

Microsoft, its software and services

"All, all, all computer users have ever used a Microsoft online service. The Hotmail mail, the instant messaging of what was then called MSN Messenger... After the fiasco that MSN brought about, its attempt to create its own Internet, it knew how to position its services, which became one of the most used among consumers."

And one fine day, Google appeared, its email service, and swept away many of its users. To the point that, in 2012, the most used email service was yours. Social networks and their chat services were also a pretty serious blow to their instant messaging system. And Bing (and before his renamed) never came to lead anything.

Microsoft services have almost always been a drain on which the bills went, although, on the other hand, they are now more important than ever, considering that all your devices (mobile or not) ) are integrated with them.

New trends, on the other hand, are making applications that were previously sold as a product now rented and offered as a service, also adding some advantages made possible by the near ubiquity of Internet connections and Cloud.Office 2013 is offered as software as a service and it is not an experiment: it is a model that is here to stay.

And, in addition, and a little apart, there is Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing service with which it supports all those who need to perform cloud computing. Video streaming, database and file storage, virtual machines... It is not the most used service but it is more than enough.

Hereinafter?

From now on Microsoft is established around the two areas I mentioned:

• On the one hand, services, promoting both the company's online services (Outlook.com, Bing, Xbox Live and related... ) as its software as a service (Office 365), without forgetting Azure, the company's cloud computing service.
• On the other hand, devices that are fully integrated with those services and with each other. Windows Phone (not yet manufactured by the company in the Surface style), plus private label hardware, or Xbox.

However, it is important to highlight that, although administratively there are divisions, Microsoft's strategy is unique as a company Before Microsoft was an amalgamation of divisions barely interrelated with each other, with their own strategy and their own structure; now, it's one Microsoft, one company with one purpose.

Image | ToddABishop