Microsoft, which is essentially out of the mobile business, is now relying on platforms like cloud computing and Cortana intelligence suite for its next growth verticals
By Karthekayan Iyer
At the Build Tour in Pune on Friday, Microsoft announced how the company is realigning its strategies on three pillars – cognitive computing, Augmented Reality and conversational bots. Back in March, Microsoft had announced that Windows 10 has surpassed 300 million active devices since its launch in July 2015 and now the company claims it is the most successful operating system till date. Despite the initial success, Microsoft is moving away from excessive dependence on Windows to new growth areas like artificial intelligence and conversational bots.
Microsoft, which is essentially out of the mobile business, is now relying on platforms like cloud computing and Cortana intelligence suite for its next growth verticals. At the Build Tour, the consensus was strongly in favour of Windows 10. According to NetMarketShare, Windows 10 has gained lately to reach 17 per cent of desktop platform while Windows 7 is still running on over 48 per cent desktop devices. Technically, that might seem a small number but that market share has come in a matter of just 10 months. Microsoft says Windows 10 users have spent over 75 billion hours using the operating system since the launch and there have been over 5 billion store visits. For Microsoft, the immediate priority is to engage more and more developers and enrich the whole gamut of Universal Windows Platform.
Microsoft, in 2016, wants consumers and developers to see Windows, Office and Azure as intelligent platforms that work together. Microsoft, which lags Amazon’s AWS, in terms of revenue announced that over 85 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are using its cloud services.
Narendra Bhandari says over 50 per cent enterprises in India rely on Microsoft Cloud for deploying their products or services. He further adds, “With three new data centres now operating out of India, we are poised to reach more startups than ever before.” Microsoft is gaining ground on cloud platform but its future is totally dependent on success of its ‘Conversation as a platform” bot framework. Microsoft differs from other AI majors by creating a platform rather than a product. Microsoft wants developers to again use its framework to build their own conversational bots.