This report about MS's move towards a revenue stream based on advertising, rather than on either the sale of software licenses or on software subscriptions, attributes last week's post-Vista-delay restructuring of the Windows Platform & Services Division to that move.
"
Customers' changing expectations are behind
Microsoft Corp.'s decision to offer some of its applications over the
Web, in the form of free services supported by advertising, a company
executive said Monday. The change in course led to last week's
management shakeup, he said."
That explanation would at least be consistent with the move from a Windows-uber-alles model to a WPF/E model as MS's main thrust. The post-bubble attitude of "Browser bad, Windows good!" that has given Firefox (and Google) its opening seems to be replaced by a "Web (or Atlas?) good, Windows less-important" viewpoint. If so, then the management structure over which Jim Allchin has ruled is a model that had to be changed by putting Windows Live, rather than the Windows desktop, at its focus.
I wonder, though, how committed they are to an advertising-supported revenue model. Before Hailstorm crashed and burned, they were really hyping up software as a subscription. As much as I would resent paying MS a monthly fee to use Windows and Office, I would resent even more having an MS Web app cluttered with ads.
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