Faster Windows Releases Show a Shift in Microsoft Support Policies: An Introspect

Windows OS users have started losing interest in the most promising and trustworthy OS manufacturer - Microsoft just because of a few decisions taken without much contemplation by the company. After the sad news of the end of extended support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014, users got another big shock that the mainstream support for Windows 7 will also be stopped by January 2015. Users are quite upset with the decisions of the company however, the company answered to this in a formal way by presenting the lifecycle sheet of their operating systems (OS).

The expected date by which the company will stop mainstream support for Windows 7 is January 13, 2015 and the company has already announced that the OS's extended support will end on January 14, 2020. Have you ever thought that what does these end support cycles imply? If not, then think why Microsoft announces the end of support for a particular operating software right before the release of its new and improved OS? Is it some kind of a marketing strategy or they just want to create a fear in users' mind to get their newly introduced product accepted widely?

 All of these questions will remain unanswered until a strong yet capable research company would trace down the movements of this big IT giant and present the same to end consumers. Owing to its growing popularity and easy to use user-interface (UI), Windows XP was successfully running on one third of total Windows PC or the world's 1.6 Billion PCs. But the company introduced Windows 8 in October 2013 and announced the date of death for XP on April 8, 2014. Another prominent example is that Windows 7's date of end support was revealed just after the company announced the release of its upcoming Windows 9 or Threshold in April 2015. Is it just a co-incidence or Microsoft is doing this intentionally to get its products accepted by the users in lieu of the fear of using OSes with no official support? Well, a coin always has two sides and so does the answer of this question. According to the company's point of view, coming up with the latest technology and innovative products is the necessity to exist in the market and dominate over rivals. But the end consumers think that the company is now more focused towards introducing new products and maintains a casual approach towards the existing ones. The end consumer's presumption is true up to certain extent as the company strategically planned the demise of Windows XP. After announcing the end support date, Microsoft showcased an offer on their website claiming that XP users will get discounts over the purchase of Win 8 devices. This clearly implies that the company wants their existing consumers to choose their next OS in line, when the support of the previous ones is ending.

As of now, users shouldn't make assumptions regarding the market strategy of Microsoft but one thing is for sure, users should keep themselves ready for several uncertain updates from the company.