Microsoft smartphone business is sinking resulting in a restructuring plan.
Microsoft Corporation is all set to encounter a restructuring plan in terms of its phone business. That will result in the layoff of almost four fifth of the workforce at Nokia where they wish to establish themselves as the industry giant. The company’s core strategy at this point of time is to embrace a turnaround.The plans to undergo a restructuring plan were announced by the company recently which encompasses a layoff of 7,800 individuals that will belong to the phone business division. Microsoft products have now chalked out its niche audience where it wishes to target those users “business users, cost-conscious customers, and Windows lovers.”Under the able leadership of Mr. Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of the company a second round of layoff is likely to take place now. Initially Mr. Nadella bid farewell to almost 18,000 employees.The tech behemoth is all set to jot down the overall worth of the company’s Nokia handset division which they acquired earlier for an amount of $7.6 billion. Moreover, it has also been estimated by the company that an amount of $750-850 million will be spent for restructuring purposes.According to Bloomberg, Mr. Nadella wrote an email for the employees that stated, “We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business, to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem including our first-party device family. In the near-term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility.”This strategy by the company is aimed to establish itself as a key player in the phone business unit that will streamline the focus and Microsoft where they will target a limited consumer base. This was the strategy earlier in order to sell the company’s tablet division.The strategy he used to sell the tablets as that they reduced the range of targeted users in order to become popular which eventually helped them embrace growth where revenues soared substantially and profits also increased to a great extent.The new strategy by Microsoft seems to come at a relatively critical time frame. The acquisition of Nokia did not really prove fruitful for them since that time there sales have declined substantially. The aim behind this acquisition was to penetrate Microsoft Windows operating system. However, it failed to do that miserably to do so.So now this will not only help Microsoft redeem its position as a smartphone maker but will also bolster Windows.
Microsoft Azure during relatively well with its cloud computing platform.
Over the past couple of years, cloud computing has gained significant momentum where many cloud service providers have modified their technologies along with offerings so that they can sustain in the industry. Moreover, prices have also slacked drastically so that the consumption rate increases. Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., and Amazon Inc. are few of those companies that has reduced the prices of their cloud computing platform earlier. However, now the software maker has decided to increase the pricing of its cloud computing platform.Microsoft Azure is MSFT’s cloud computing platform that has been designed by the firm to deploy, develop and look after applications and services across a global data center network. These platforms are either hosted by the company’s partners or they manage it themselves. This platform has the ability to support third-party apps along with various tools and programming languages. The platform was launched earlier in 2010 and was known as Windows Azure, but later it was renamed to Microsoft Azure.This news was put forward by The Register once they got hands on a Microsoft official to discuss their cloud computing platform. This spokesperson talked about how this platform is now being recognized and used globally where the rate of adoption fluctuates from country to country. So the company actually chalks out its strategy according to the region in which it is operational.He further added, "The Company continues to evaluate the market conditions in the countries in which we operate. As a result, we will be adjusting the prices for the company’s enterprise cloud services in Australia, starting 1 August 2015.” These changes will be implemented across the globe.These plans by the company were publicized when Mr. Aidan Finn a renowned blogger got access to the company’s emails from which excerpts were extracted and posted on a website. According to the blog, a 13 percent increase is observed in the prices of Eurozone along with a 26 percent increase in the Australian region.This clearly highlights that the company has been successful in making its niche market where growth rates show that the company has potential to further increase its market share across the globe.It is a known fact that Azure is one of the top notch Microsoft products and a leader in the cloud computing domain. The company has become extremely competent and is now on par with the cloud computing service of Amazon Web Services and Google. The company has more room to prosper in the times to come.
Microsoft bids farewell to its former employees as part of a restructuring program.
Microsoft Corporation is restructuring itself with an aim to provide efficient business process and better rate of production. The company being par on with its core ambitions has thus decided to shuffle its top most leadership.Mr. Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft recent sent an email to employees which stated, “We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions...This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace.”This measure will actually result in the departure of Nokia Corporation’s former CEO, Mr. Stephen Elop who joined the company in 2013 when they acquired Nokia. This is not it but along with Mr. Elop, Eric Rudder and Kirill Tatarinov will also bid farewell to the company. Mark Penn who is the Chief Insights Officer of the firm will also depart in September. However, Mr. Penn’s departure is not due to the changes made in the internal structure of the company but he wishes to pursue an equity fund.Terry Myerson, the Executive VP will be heading the new team that will be known “Windows and Devices Group”. The new division is bound to enhance the personal computing experience that will be driven the Windows ecosystem.Scott Guthrie, the executive vice president will have to take up on several other responsibilities apart from his duty to manage the Cloud and Enterprise team. As reported by BidnessETC, “the new structure, the Dynamics development teams will also come under the fold of the Cloud and Enterprise team. This would aid in ramping up the ERP and CRM business, and would make it a part of the Cloud and Engineering platform, as well as the company’s innovation efforts.”Apart from this Mr. Qi Lu, the executive vice president of Microsoft will resume his position as the Applications and Services Group (ASG) head with an aim to increase the productivity service for their digital ecosystem. Apart from this, he will also be responsible to market the education solutions.Hence Microsoft products and services are all set to pave its way to redemption. The reason why the company is embracing structural changes accounts for their efforts to breathe in life to the company again. The efforts of Mr. Satya Nadella are targeted towards revamping the image of the company and help them in making way to innovating without which and tech related firm cannot really survive.
Microsoft needs to come out of Windows and explore new segments like computing on web and desktop.
Previously many questioned whether the CEO of Microsoft Corporation’s Mr. Satya Nadella could cope up for the losses the company has experienced. However, things have changed to a great extent for them and they are actually on the verge of redemption. At this point, Mr. Nadella’s strategy is working out for the firm but still there are certain loopholes in the company’s strategy and vision that will halt the company’s growth in the times to come.Tiernan Ray of Barron’s Asia believes that for a company to be successful it needs to have the aspects of Android and Apple. Despite the fact that Mr. Nadella’s efforts have boosted Microsoft (MSFT) stocks to a price of $48.30. The company’s effort to streamline its service for its Windows operating system have acted as barriers for them since they are now focused on one particular domain rather than exploring other potential platforms. Computing in mobile and web has immense potential for growth, Mr. Ray suggests MSFT to come out of Windows and explore new horizons.September will be a game changer for the firm where it expects to launch Windows 10 which is expected to be the next eye candy for developers and users. The company is focused and believes that the upcoming operating system will have such advancements that have never been seen in Windows OS. Many consider that it will be on par Max OS X. However those have been associated with the company for long do not see it as a major advancement.Mr. Sherlund, while speaking to Barron’s Asia stated: “It used to be they would ship a new version, and the market took it as an inducement to buy new PCs. But the PC market is just too mature at this point for consumers to have a lot of interest in a new operating system.”The company is now on the right track considering they have something big in store that is likely to become a major disruption. Moreover, the company now has several futuristic plans which if implemented in the right direction can cause further disruption.MSFT is only struggling when it comes to their smartphones where the operating system on this platform is not very well received by the masses. Moreover, developer’s preferences for iOS and Android over Windows has also resulted in defame which the company needs to worry about.Microsoft products and services are increase and getting better with time if this continues then the future is extremely stable for them.
Microsoft cannot really compete with iOS and Android ecosystem.
Microsoft Corporation has been a major game player in the world of laptops, personal computers, and tablets to some extent, but the company has been stumbling when it comes to smartphones since a long while now. Microsoft products have established their niche market, but smartphones have never been their thing.
The two operating system which have become a major game player in the mobile interface domain is Apple Inc's iOS and Google Inc's Android. They have been present in the market for a fairly long time and have made their strong market presence. During this time, Microsoft was only stumbling when both these operating systems were establishing its market. However, many skeptics believe that Windows 10 will not be a game changer for them as well since the mess has already been made.
There are several problems associated with Windows operating system. Firstly, developers have sidelined this operating primarily to the limited stream of revenues along with the lack of opportunity when comparing Android or iOS. Developers tend to spend a great amount of time in building these two operating system that apps on Windows are hardly updated. Most of the time, the Window users complain that they do not get a similar experience like the two operating system. Moreover, few Microsoft products that are highly demanded are also rolled out on other OS without understanding that they need to work on their platform at this point of time.
However, Microsoft at this point is trying to enforce the fact that this new operating system will be a breakthrough for them. The new browser known as Project Spartan is expected to be a game changer for the firm which will redefine the browsing experience. They will now also have an Action Center that will allow users to receive notifications and sync data on various platforms. They are reportedly working on an on- screen keyboard that will be floating. Moreover, A Siri-like feature known as Cortana will act like a personal assistant of the user keeping him well equipped with everything he needs to know.
Irrespective of the fact that new features have been launched, we do not see that any damage can be caused to the market share of Apple and Google. However, Microsoft efforts need to be commended since now they are at least trying to pave their way to redemption.
Hence, in a nutshell, Microsoft will gradually pave its way to redemption and meanwhile these steps will act as a catalyst to embrace the change on a broader canvas.
