Microsoft's previous Vista operating system performance is disappointing, and Windows7 will certainly be successful. 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 Windows7 is still quite positive, and some even praise it.
Windows7 not just Microsoft's first major leap, there may mark the end of a era of IT, while another era will also be kicked 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 change the competitive nature of the industry
Windows7 release coincides lasted 10 contained in the Microsoft antitrust pain to a close. 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 custom interface (ballotscreen) for Windows users in Europe, allowing users to choose other browsers to replace Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Windows will not disappear in the short term, but the importance of cloud computing means that the product has been watered down. 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 the smartphone operating system WindowsMobile6.5. Microsoft will also release Azure next month, a platform for developers to write and run cloud computing services.
the rise of cloud computing technology 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.
Although 90% of the PC is still running Windows, but the importance of reducing the PC means that Microsoft is no longer a monopoly omnipotent. 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 companies offering cloud computing service that provides web-based services, including music and social networking site for users by 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 battle. In July of this year, Google announced that it will release a free PC operating system, ChromeOS, to launch a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows. There are rumors that the basic version of ChromeOS 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.
Big Three different characteristics
professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management 迈克尔库苏 Mano (MichaelCusumano) that despite the similarities between these three giants are growing But they still maintain their unique advantages. It can be classified by cloud computing strategy, revenue-generating methods, and openness to intellectual property.
Google
so to speak, since its inception in 1998, Google has been is 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 phone operating system and Chrome web browser, and the PC operating system ChromeOS will soon be available.
Google did not start at the beginning to find income-generating ways, but ultimately profitable business with advertising, the business 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 RentokilInitial will deploy Google's web application to the company's 35,000 employees, becoming the largest customer of Google's enterprise applications.
Since Google acquired dependent on advertising revenue, making the company a more open attitude to intellectual property rights. Both Google android and ChromeOS 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.