Satya Nadella has been doing wonders for the tech giant Microsoft (MSFT, Financial). While some may call his moves to be unlike what’s expected from the company, some are pretty happy with this change. One careful look at the changes brought by him can make it clear that the man is seriously looking at turning around the fortunes of the company, leaving no doubt that the company is changing. But some of the recent changes are very similar to successful strategies adopted by Apple (AAPL, Financial) and this brings me to the question: is the company trying to become the next Apple?
Trends Set By Apple
One of the biggest barriers for Microsoft’s consumers and developers was that the different operating systems from the company were too segregated. The lack of integration between them stood in the way of flexible use of the OSs on different devices. To make it simple – the concept of converged devices was missing. The concept has been around for some time now and a brilliant example of its application has been displayed by Apple, and if you own more than one Apple device you would know what I am trying to say.
What the Cupertino-company has done with its iOS is just praise worthy. Back in WWDC 2011 when Apple launched iCloud no one really knew how useful the addition will be. But today its importance in iOS ecosystem can be clearly felt. You can buy an app for your iPhone and unless it’s an iPhone-specific app you can easily use that on your iPad. Keep certain web pages on your iPad’s Safari open and you have the option to view those same pages on your iPhone’s Safari as well. Click amazing moments with your iPhone and have the pictures made available on your other Apple devices also. Now that’s what I call a well-integrated operating system and that’s exactly what Microsoft is looking to offer now.
The Changed Microsoft
Microsoft has been on its toes for some time now to bring together its diverse operating systems under one platform through which it can deliver seamless integration in terms of usage and applications. Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 9 RT - all three OSs now perform in one single kernel (a computer program that manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data processing instructions) with a common runtime system. As a result, the three operating systems are not dissimilar anymore and now are very much alike under the hood.
This marks an epic step on the tech giant’s part and is surely great news for app developers as well as consumers. The developers can now work on the codes for new apps just once and keep deploying them for all versions of Windows. This step also fits in very well in to Microsoft’s goal to make it simple for the developers to make apps. As a result of this now the company can expect better apps which in turn might attract several buyers for Windows Phone powered devices. For the consumers the story is also sweet. Now they can buy one app and pay just once while using it on multiple Windows devices. Just like in case of Apple!
Departing Thoughts
Honestly speaking, I am not a huge fan of Microsoft. Surely I admire all the innovations made possible by the company, but its recent activities were just not living up to those standards. However, now with Nadella in the picture the situation might change vastly. The integration between different devices has added to Apple’s success immensely and now may be it will help Microsoft come out of its chains. May be the company is changing its angle and becoming more like Apple. But, I guess, there’s no harm in that. Everyone picks up good things in the path of their life. The current situation is nothing different.
