Microsoft has already revealed that its hotly anticipated Windows 10 will be launched globally this summer, and will also be a free upgrade for anyone currently running Windows 7 or 8. Now Redmond has dropped another bombshell with the announcement that the free upgrade will be available even to users running pirated copies of the same.
To understand Microsoft’s rationale behind this move, we need not look further than where the announcement was made: at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China. According to a recent report, more than three-quarters of all PC software is not properly licensed in China, as well as other rapidly developing markets like India and Brazil. Offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade will enable Microsoft to gain a legitimate foothold in these markets.
Microsoft has gone to great lengths in the past to throttle piracy, with activation codes and license keys. Unfortunately, a quick Google search was all that one needed to get his or her hands on a genuine key that could be used to activate any illegal copy of Windows 7 or 8. Microsoft has tried various methods to encourage those customers to return their machines or seek out a legal copy, but it is headache and a bad experience of Windows itself if that’s the first thing you have to deal with in certain regions.
To put this into perspective, Apple has offered free upgrades to OS X since 2013, and mobile operating system updates have long been free. Apple can make up for some of this lost revenue through increased hardware sales, and Microsoft is trying this strategy as well with its Surface tablet/notebook hybrid and other new devices. But Google offers its Android mobile operating system for free, making money off mobile advertising and app sales in the Google Play Store. Microsoft may similarly see a free Windows 10 as the gateway to alternate revenue streams.
The company now offers a range of cloud services, including Office 365, Skype and OneDrive, that Windows users may be more likely shell out for, even if they didn’t buy an operating system license. And even if those customers don’t end up buying cloud services from the company, at least they’re staying in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Microsoft is working with Lenovo Group Ltd, the world’s biggest PC maker, to help roll out Windows 10 in China to current Windows users, according to a statement by Terry Myerson who runs Microsoft’s operating systems unit.
