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Channel: Ted Lee » microsoft

Microsoft wages war on BYOD

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Microsoft wages war on BYODMicrosoft has decreed that starting Dec. 1, it will raise the price of user client-access licenses (CALs) for enterprise customers by 15% for those companies that allow it’s employees to bring your own device (BYOD). CALs are attached to Microsoft’s cash cow applications, most notably Exchange.

What this means for most companies who have embraced a BYOD strategy is that they will end up paying more money to Microsoft for the ‘privilege’ of being able to access these systems from multiple devices.

I’m sure Microsoft sees this as using it’s hammer (Exchange) to stop the rising tide of consumer devices like the iPad that are being brought in to enterprise environments. I have to wonder if this will their customers look elsewhere. After all, companies are embracing BYOD strategies in order to save money and increase productivity. If Microsoft thinks that they can increase the price of their products by 15% and customers won’t look for other options, they are mistaken.

This move strikes me as a rather desperate attempt to keep customers on the Microsoft plantation, and milk them for more money if they should dare to embrace non Microsoft devices in the enterprise. These are defensive moves that tend to hurt a company more than it helps. Time will tell if the genie is too far out of the bottle, or if Microsoft can use this tactic to slow the adoption of non-Microsoft tablets in the enterprise.


Microsoft ❤ Android

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microsoft hearts androidYou know who is really happy about the success of Android?

Microsoft.

Yes, you heard me right – Microsoft. You see, Microsoft has succeeded in bullying convincing the manufacturers of Android devices to pay Microsoft a patent licensing fee. This is because Microsoft has threatened other manufacturers using Android in the past with patent litigation. And it seems nobody really wants to challenge Microsoft’s legal prowess on this, so they pay the fee.

The latest to pony up to the Godfather Microsoft, is Nikon, who is now using Android in some of their cameras.

So Google doesn’t collect a fee from someone using Android (it is open source, after all), but Microsoft does. Just how much money is Android generating for Microsoft? Well, in Q2 of 2012, Microsoft collected nearly $800 million dollars. So it’s not a stretch to say that in a very short amount of time, Microsoft will be pulling in over $5 billion/year from Android patent licenses.

The real question to ask would be this: Just how fast are revenues from Android growing for Microsoft versus how fast revenues are growing from Windows Phone.

I suspect Android licenses are a bigger chunk of change for Microsoft right now, and for the projected future.

I’m sure Microsoft doesn’t mind taking these manufacturers money, but man, it sure has to sting knowing people would rather pay you a licensing fee to use a competitors product than to pay you a fee to use yours.





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