As unfocused as a "cloud first, mobile first" strategy may appear on its surface, Microsoft continues to shed light on how it intends to battle its competition with its double-bitted ax strategy.
On a recent earnings call with investors, Microsoft spent little time talking about the 18,000 employees getting pinks slips this year and used the majority of teleconference to reveal how it plans to merge overlapping product and services.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said his company would move relentlessly to push its work and life products and services onto its two targeted platforms, its Azure cloud servers and mobile devices. Reiterating the company's drive to reinvent productivity, Nadella said the company had already begun moving to unify cloud services and mobile devices with universal software -- Outlook and Exchange became one team, as did Skype and Lync.
"We are clear that our experiences are going to be available on all devices," stated Nadella. "We have a specific goal for multiple Microsoft applications to be available on every home screen. This is why we brought Office to the iPad and now there are more than 35 million downloads of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote."
Not only does Microsoft intend to expand the compatibility of its apps, Nadella said the company was developing one operating system for "screens of all sizes." The Microsoft CEO didn't offer much detail about his company's incoming OS, besides stating that it would serve multiple devices, but he said Microsoft was recommitting to Windows users.
Microsoft's recommittment to Windows users and its plans to offer a universal OS comes after the tablet-like user interface of Windows 8 fell flat with many of the OS' users. Nadella said his company addressed consumer complaints with the release of the well-received 8.1 version of Windows -- so there's a chance the next Windows OS will feature platform-specific UI and controls, while resting on the same foundation.
To encourage development and implimentation of the next Windows OS, Nadella said the OS will be free to original equipment manufacturers on devices nine inches and smaller.
