Microsoft is back on the battlefield with a free version of Windows 8.1

Reading: According to The Verge from the news, Microsoft is now testing the free version of Windows 8.1, this will be the big move by Microsoft again, or the essence of "wool out of pigs"?

"Free" is a good thing.

When Apple announced that OS X 10.9 Mavericks was free, the discussion focused on Microsoft, which is now "charging" for a long time.

But now, things may have to change. According to The Verge, Microsoft is currently testing a free version of Windows 8.1--"Windows 8.1 with Bing", a free version that will bundle Microsoft's range of software, including cloud services, with more details to wait until the April build The developer Assembly will make it known.

For Windows 7 users, Windows 8.1 with Bing will be a low-cost and even free upgrade opportunity to dramatically increase the number of Windows 8.1 users and promote a range of Microsoft services such as Bing. Windows 8 has now sold more than 200 million shares since the end of 2012, but this is not as satisfying as the 7 growth of Windows. A big part of that is because the PC market is in a slump.

Earlier, Microsoft had lowered the Windows 8 system licensing fee for Low-cost (250-dollar) devices to 70% to 15 dollars, and a free version of Windows 8.1 was likely to be part of the series. It is also seen as an important move by Microsoft to drive its own software and cloud services and try to make money out of them.

Yet this raises a question. Microsoft's cloud services, such as OneDrive, Office Online and other basic services are free to provide, even if the free version of Windows 8.1 brought about the explosion of user numbers, whether these cloud services have enough profitability to "landfills" also need to play a question mark. ZDNet Mary Jo Foley called Microsoft's monetization dilemma.

Anyway, "free" is always popular. In this era, unless there is a strong ability to provide unique services, the "pay" one can lose a large number of users. We also see that the Freemium and IAP models are becoming more popular in the Apps and gaming areas of the mobile end, while most of the paid lives are not very good.

This reminds me of a surprising data: Jinshan poison PA After free income, than the charge of anti-virus software a full increase of four times times. We always say "wool is on the sheep", but Fu says:

In other words, what is the nature of the Internet? In addition to the extreme, recently I have a new sentiment, that is "wool out of pigs." The best thing about millet is that "I don't make money here, but I earn it in other ways." Jinshan Poison PA Just came out, antivirus software does not make money ... We later announced that it was free to earn more money from the side than in the traditional antivirus market.