The 'free' upgrade trick won't fix Microsoft's bottom line

Summary: As Microsoft admits billions of dollars in losses just days before Vista 10 is pushed as a 'free' upgrade, there is no concrete sign that financial recovery is imminent, for the bigger cash cow (Office) suffers a similar fate

MICROSOFT thinks that the world is stupid and that given enough media propaganda the world will eventually believe that Microsoft is doing just fine. Microsoft is not doing fine (just ask anyone who works at Microsoft, except in the PR department).

"Vista 10 is not free and it never will be. AstroTurfing and PR is all that is. 'Free' upgrade is just a substitution of binaries; it's like system update that bears with it a new brand and new number."Microsoft is now suffering billions in losses and is therefore trying to abduct the competition. After Microsoft killed the Finnish giant Nokia the abusive company from Redmond is trying to deflect every bad news to Nokia. It grossly rewrites the recent history of Nokia and uses the corruptible elements in the press to bamboozle the public (as well as some journalists) into the belief that it's all just a "Nokia" issue. A lot of the corporate media (even financial press) spoke about the layoffs as a "Nokia" thing [1, 2, 3], even though it clearly isn't the case. It is Microsoft that's dying, not Nokia, which still gets broken to pieces [1, 2], including patents that are passed to Android-hostile entities like patent trolls, at Microsoft's directions. Microsoft just desperately tried to cling onto Nokia (especially the internationally-respected brand), trying in vain to rescue Windows Mobile (or Windows Phone, or KIN, or whatever they rename to). Microsoft already killed other companies, Danger for example (the company of Android's founder), by doing this same destructive routine. Mobile Linux is something that Microsoft cannot keep up with, no matter the number of coups and acquisitions. Watch the CBS-run CNET painting all these issues as mobile-only issues. Nonsense! Vista 10 will soon be officially released (there is media spam already, as we foresaw) by what's essentially a dying company and as one writer put it, "Microsoft Takes a Hit Before Windows 10 Launch". His summary: "A quarter of layoffs, write-downs, and exec shuffles in a huge loss ahead of the Windows 10 launch."

AdWeek, essentially a PR rag, has just published an article titled "Microsoft Tries to Give Away Its Operating System". It must be Ads Week, not AdWeek, because this headline is a lie. Vista 10 is not free and it never will be. AstroTurfing and PR is all that is. 'Free' upgrade is just a substitution of binaries; it's like system update that bears with it a new brand and new number.

"Little By Little," says Pogdon, "The World Is Freeing Itself From Microsoft". Even patent extortion against Android/Linux is not enough to keep Microsoft going:

I’d guess this means the Android/Linux cash-cow has dried a little. Oh, and they wrote off Nokia…

It's a big problem not just for Windows, one among two big cash cows, whose cost is reduced (not long-term cost) so as to remain competitive. "The more consumers that Microsoft puts on its Office 365 subscription rolls, the less it makes from each customer, data the company disclosed Tuesday showed." That's according to a Microsoft sceptic from IDG (one of the very few on that network). iophk noted that this article is "[m]issing a mention of LibreOffice or even the OpenDocument Format." Nevertheless, it does show that the biggest cash cow too is in trouble, in part because it faces pricing pressure from competition like Google Apps and standards like ODF. Microsoft is going down the same path as Novell right now, living off its legacy while it still lasts. ⬆