Tencent Technology (Rui Jie) Beijing time on July 2nd news, well-known technology media CNET recently published it Marketing Company Martinwolf founder Maddie Wolf (Marty Wolf) review article said that Microsoft recently launched its own brand tablet Surface is an important manifestation of its strategic transformation, given that Microsoft is still holding about $ 60 billion in cash, so the company's new
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Microsoft's decades-long partnership with Intel is crumbling after it launched the Surface tablet. Because the alliance faces a new heavyweight competitor, Microsoft itself. Similar to other successful partnerships, the Wintel alliance has been successful primarily because all participants, including OEMs, distributors, and others, benefit from this partnership while driving the growth of the network. Moreover, in the current desktop computer and notebook market, the “Wintel” alliance is still the absolute king of the market.
But in the context of smartphones, tablets and the cloud, which will gradually replace traditional computers and laptops, Microsoft's eventual rollout of Surface tablets is an imaginable but shocking move. The move itself shows that Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft behind it are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, including breaking the partnership system that they have built themselves.
$ 60 billion in cash support
Despite the profitability of Microsoft's traditional PC business peaked in 2010. But Microsoft currently has nearly $ 60 billion in cash, and it still has a 90 percent share in the traditional PC market. In the most recent quarter, Microsoft had $ 118 billion in assets, including $ 59.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Second, only to Apple and HP, ranked third.
Naturally, the recent rollout of the media technology segment for Microsoft and its Surface tablet is filled with a lot of commentaries.CNET has previously published a round of Charles·Cooper (Charles Cooper) called "Microsoft to adjust the market strategy, Ballmer is expected to rewrite the CEO resume" analysis article, Microsoft with the next generation of mobile operating system Windows Phone 8, Surface tablet, and the new mobile payment system will be expected to compete with Apple.
Of course, the challenge to Apple has been the best strategy for other manufacturers in the industry, because, in their opinion, Apple will pick off that means their own success. But the fact that in addition to Apple, “Wintel” alliance OEMs and channel providers should also cause concern. Some industry insiders believe that the release of the Surface tablet is just a stimulus to stimulate Microsoft OEMs to launch better products, Microsoft will soon withdraw from the hardware business.
Clearly, this view is completely wrong.
Microsoft's new world view
What is happening now is actually the result of Microsoft looking at the entire industry with a new worldview. Now, the tech industry is undergoing profound changes, but Microsoft's existing partners are slow to act, perform poorly, and cannot bring much value to Microsoft.Microsoft believes that existing partners have begun to influence the pace of the company's success.
Moreover, in such a so-called“post-PC” era, close to the consumer is very necessary. Because this is the only way to improve the user experience, Apple has proven that doing so will bring a huge competitive advantage. Apple in the design of software, but also responsible for the design of hardware, thus achieving a seamless combination of hardware and software. On the other hand, Apple also controls the entire ecosystem, including sales, distribution, service, technical support, and even mobile operator partners. But Microsoft, whose current strategy is mainly to only provide software licensing to hardware partners, there is no absolute control over the product and consumer experience.
In addition, the new strategy can give Microsoft another advantage, that is, full control of the entire ecosystem, then Microsoft will be able to obtain a similar traditional PC business monopoly advantage. If providing a great user experience is about gaining an edge over consumers, targeting consumers is about gaining an edge over vendors.
For now, if the user wants to get Apple's beautiful design, device compatibility, excellent application, and rich content, then only buy Apple products. Therefore, Apple can benefit from all kinds of consumer actions on the company's hardware platform. It was based on this idea that Microsoft decided to compete with its long-term OEM partners, including Lenovo, Acer, Dell, and HP.
This is very bad news for OEMs, and this is only the beginning. Because Microsoft will reconsider the distributor and reseller strategy.At present, the value of inventory, credit and delivery services such as distributors is not high, low-profit margin, Microsoft can provide similar services on their own. Of course, it takes a long time for Microsoft to fully establish a network of distributors and consumers, and to provide services with higher value-added, such as establishing consumer relationships.
At the moment, it is not clear whether Microsoft will do this. It should be noted that since IBM from the hardware business to enterprise service transformation and General Electric to aerospace, cutting-edge technology, no company has successfully completed such a large-scale transformation. However, Microsoft has made up its mind and has invested a lot of resources to implement the long-term strategy, hoping to win in the”post-PC " era. It is believed that Microsoft's existing partners will soon be affected.