Microsoft is planning to unifiy all of its operating systems into one big operating system that emphasizes on mobility and the cloud. Basically, the company plans to merge life and work.
"This means one operating system that covers all screen sizes and consolidated dual use productivity services that cross life and work." Said Microsoft CEO Nadella.
"The company will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes."
"He's saying the right things -- breaking down the silos, focusing on the user, backing out of the dead end that was 'devices,'" said Ezra Gottheil, principal analyst for the computing practice atTechnology Business Research.
"The new strategy anticipates the world of tomorrow" said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"As we go forward, mobile platforms will gain more capability, and much more emphasis will be placed on the cloud," he pointed out. "In the developed world, we're moving to a model that's more like a cable operator and less like the PC world of the 90s."
The company is concerned about the efficiency, or the lack of efficiency if anything, of manipulating large files on the cloud.
Microsoft is very close to developing a single ruling OS. Windows Phone, Windows RT, and Windows 8.1 all share the same code and kernel.
Microsoft has been working for a long time to get shared code running in their applications, especially with Bing and OneNote.
Although there is much hype about being a cloud, devices, and a consumer company, Microsoft thanked enterprise customers for paying their way. Its because of them that business customers made up the largest block of Microsoft's financial year in 2014.
As a business area, cloud grew. Microsoft claimed commercial cloud revenue grew 147 percent in the quarter.
