Microsoft talks about the new licensing model for Windows 10

Mar 23, 2015 12:50 GMT  ·  By

There are many changes that Microsoft has in mind for Windows 10, and one of them is embracing a new licensing model that would help the company make the operating system available to more users, but at the same time, earn more from it.

It's well-known fact that, for consumers, Windows 10 is going to become free of charge within the first year of availability on computers running a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, but analysts and experts across the world expect the same to happen in the case of enterprises too.

Microsoft is ready to make the very first step towards this approach with a freemium business model for Windows 10, and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela detailed the company's plans in a recent keynote at Convergence 2015.

Windows 10 won't be just a limited trial

There are people out there who believe that Windows 10 could become available free of charge, but only for a limited time, which would make it more or less of a time trial. Others think that Redmond could at some point implement ads, and thus make more money off the OS without moving a single finger.

But none of these is true, as Microsoft is actually planning to make Windows 10 available completely free of charge for consumers, while enterprises that want more features would have to pay a certain fee.

“This whole model is predicated not on the notion that someone will pay you before they get to use your products but on the complete opposite, that almost every one of your products, certainly every one of our cloud products, will have a free tier.  And I don’t mean a trial program, I mean a free tier, it’s just free, and you can focus on acquiring people for free and getting them to use your product,” Capossela explained.

This would help Microsoft better address the needs of its customers, Capossela continued, as pretty much everyone would get the exact feature package that they need.

Inspired by Office

In just a few words, here's how Windows 10 might work. First, you get the operating system free of charge and you can install the core package, which includes the common features, without paying a single cent.

If you're OK with the features you get, that's it, you won't have to pay any other fee to continue using the operating system, but enterprises, which are very likely to look for more advanced features and tools, might decide to pay a little bit more to get them.

This new approach was inspired by Office, Capossela pointed out, as the very same strategy is being used for Office 365, which has made the division it belongs to the number one cash cow for the company.

“We’ve recently moved the Office business, which is roughly $25 billion every year to Microsoft, it’s the biggest business we have at the company, we’ve literally moved that entire business to a freemium business where if you use Office on a phone or on a small tablet, it’s essentially a freemium model,” the Microsoft official explained.

“You can just go download Word in the iPhone store or in the Android store on your phone, and it’s free.  There are certain high-end features that you have to pay for, but the vast majority of it is free.”

Right now, there are still a number of points that need to be clarified, such as the price enterprises might have to pay to get the full feature package, but these are matters that the company is expected to address before the new OS comes out. Windows 10 is scheduled to go live in the second half of 2015, so there's still plenty of time to get this right.