Microsoft Facing Uphill Battle Over Subscriptions

Following Office and Microsoft 365, experts predict subscriptions that a Windows subscription is on the horizon.

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Experts are warning Microsoft faces an uphill battle if it attempts to force consumers into paying a subscription for Windows.

Microsoft has already managed to successfully convert Office into a subscription product and recently introduced Microsoft 365, a joint pay-as-you go model for both Office and Windows targeted at businesses.

That’s given rise to predictions that Microsoft is planning to turn Windows into a pay-monthly subscription for consumers, too. “Microsoft is on a trajectory that seems to be going more and more towards subscriptions and we might conclude that consumer subscriptions is a likely path,” Stephen White, research director at Gartner, told PC Pro.

Currently, most consumers get Windows as part of the price of their machine, with the system builder paying around $100 for a licence. “The OEMs’ side of things doesn’t necessarily fit with subscriptions and I think that those partners are extremely important to Microsoft and they wouldn’t want to compromise,” said White. “They [OEMs] would need to be on board with anything Microsoft wanted to do. It really wouldn’t want to provoke those partners to put something else on those machines.”

Microsoft declined to comment on any changes to the Windows model.

Bringing on the subs