The three giants in the win7 era compete for strategic areas

Microsoft's previous Vista operating system was disappointing, and Windows 7 was sure to succeed. Since XP is still widely used, there is a great demand in the operating system market, and the failure of Vista has caused this demand to be suppressed for a long time. Although there are occasional problems when installing, the current evaluation of Windows 7 is still quite positive, and some even praise it.

Windows 7 is not only a major leap forward for Microsoft, it may also mark the end of an IT era, and another era will kick off. A lot of calculations will no longer be done by PCs in the home or office, but by the cloud. The so-called cloud is a data center with a large number of storage systems and hundreds of servers. These powerful devices can process data for users over the Internet. Such services are collectively referred to as cloud computing services, and web-based email, social networking, and online gaming are all such devices that users can access through browsers, smartphones, and other client devices. Windows 7 became the first Microsoft operating system with reduced functionality due to the large number of services that can be downloaded or used online.

Cloud computing changes the competitive nature of the industry

The release of Windows 7 coincides with the end of the 10-year-old Microsoft antitrust crisis. Microsoft has been investigated in the US and Europe for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the PC operating system to promote its web browser. On October 7, the European Commission said that it had reached a final settlement with Microsoft on related issues. Microsoft has agreed to provide a Windows user with a ballot screen that allows users to choose other browsers to replace Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Windows won't disappear in the short term, but cloud computing means that the product is no longer as important. Microsoft will release other products this fall, although not as powerful as Windows 7, but it can reflect the future direction of Microsoft. Last month, Microsoft just launched two data centers, which together have more than 500,000 servers. This month, Microsoft also released a new version of its smartphone operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5. Microsoft will also release Azure next month, a platform for developers to write and run cloud computing services.

The rise of cloud computing technology has not only changed the focus of Microsoft's development, but also changed the competitive nature of the computer industry. So far, the development of technology has repeatedly dispersed computing power from the central hub, first from the mainframe to the small computer, and then to the PC. Now, with the gradual lowering of processor prices and the gradual improvement of performance, coupled with the popularization of the network and the acceleration of transmission speed, the computing power has gradually re-centered in some aspects, but it is further decentralized in other aspects. The cloud computing data center is actually an extra large public mainframe. At the same time, PCs are being replaced by a large number of small-sized wireless devices, such as smartphones and netbooks, and perhaps in the near future, tablets (computers that are similar in size to books and have touch screens) will appear.

While 90% of PCs are still running Windows, the reduced importance of PCs means that Microsoft is no longer an omnipotent monopolist. Other companies are also creating large-scale cloud computing services, including Internet giant Google and Apple, which has just more than Google and IBM.

Indeed, there are hundreds of businesses offering cloud computing services that provide users with web-based services, including music sites and social networks, through applications running on the data center. But Microsoft, Google and Apple have different strategies. All three companies have data centers around the world, and their purpose is not just to provide one or two services, but a set of services, including email, address book, storage services, collaboration tools, and enterprise applications. They are still vying for dominance in the periphery, not only encouraging developers to develop software for smartphones and other small devices, or even producing them themselves.

These three giants are preparing for the battle. In July of this year, Google announced that it will release a free PC operating system, Chrome OS, to launch a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows. There are rumors that the basic version of Chrome OS will be the same day or a little night with Windows 7, Microsoft's new mobile operating system shows that the company hopes to catch up with Apple's iPhone and Google Android. On October 12th, Arthur Levinson, who also served on Google and Apple's board of directors, resigned as a Google director. In August of this year, Google CEO Eric Schmidt also just resigned as Apple director. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that Schmidt made the decision because Google is increasingly entering Apple's core business.

The three giants have different characteristics

Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, believes that although the similarities between the three giants are Increasingly, they still maintain their unique advantages. It can be classified by cloud computing strategy, revenue-generating methods, and openness to intellectual property.

Google

It can be said that since its inception in 1998, Google has been a cloud computing company. Search is Google's most famous business, but the company also offers many other products and services. It is estimated that Google has more than 30 data centers, with a total of 2 million servers, making it a global network. In addition, Google provides users with web-based enterprise applications, including word processing and spreadsheet software. Recently, Google also launched the Android mobile operating system and Chrome web browser, and the PC operating system Chrome OS will soon be available.

Google did not find a way to generate revenue at the beginning of its business, but ultimately it was profitable with its advertising business, which has now become Google’s main source of income. Google has a 75% market share in search advertising revenue across the US, and its global share is even higher. Google also tried to generate revenue by selling corporate services. Google said on October 12 that the UK pest control and cleaning service provider Rentokil Initial will deploy Google's web application to the company's 35,000 employees, becoming the largest customer of Google's enterprise applications.

Because Google relies on advertising to generate revenue, the company's attitude toward intellectual property is more open. Both Google Android and Chrome OS are open source software, which not only threatens competitors' paid products, but also increases the demand for Google products, thereby increasing the coverage of their advertising services. But Google's openness also has certain limits: the search giant rarely commented on its data center infrastructure and search algorithms because it is Google's competitive advantage. The internal organization of Google's internal research and development adopts an open and decentralized approach: the creativity of most services comes from the self-organizing team of employees. Previous123Next page Total 3 pages