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Microsoft Surface Go 
Credit: Microsoft
Consumers, rejoice: Microsoft cares about you again. May be. It depends if the leader of the new group of modern life and Microsoft devices has substantial plans behind his statements.
In recent years, Redmond's attention has been focused on the company.
While the company has built products like Azure Consumer-focused services such as the Groove Music service, Microsoft Band and Windows Phone have fallen to the water.
And Microsoft has essentially acknowledged its negligence of the mainstream market at the Vendor's Vendor Partner Conference in Las.
Yusuf Mehdi, now vice president of the company in charge of the modern life and appliances group at Microsoft, led an in camera session on "Modern Life Services," according to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet
. tweet that Mehdi posted the event includes the words, "we start the trip to win back consumers with our vision", probably this year.
(As late as Apr he, Mehdi was vice president of Windows and Devices, while in his new role, Mehdi now reports to Chris Capossela, marketing director of the technology giant. reshuffle in March also introduced a team of experiments and devices, led by Rajesh Jha, who reports to CEO Satya Nadella.)
If Microsoft can win back consumers depends, in large part, simply redefine the problem, or if it plans to support its promise with real products.
The rise of the "professional consumer"
To be honest, Microsoft is maintaining a huge consumer activity around the Xbox gaming console, bringing in over $ 2.2 billion revenue for the last quarter. 19659005] Xbox aside, however, most of Microsoft's "mainstream activities" rely heavily on the demarcation line between the professional and the consumer, and the ease with which individuals can move between the two worlds. 7 updates are growing
You can see evidence of this duality in Microsoft's own services. On the one hand, it offers businesses services to restrict the flow of confidential business information outside of the corporate firewall.
On the other hand, a series of smart "nudges" in Outlook are designed to remind workaholics that their coworkers want to enjoy a personal life away from the office. However, no one would confuse Outlook with a "consumer" product.
Devices like Surface, and especially Surface Go, are a little more complicated to categorize because they are designed to be used at home and in the interior. an office environment.
Is a Surface a professional PC? A consumer device? Most customers probably do not care. But it's here that Microsoft can simply wave and say "Here we are serving the consumer now!" Without really changing anything.
Credit: IDG Your phone?
Microsoft will have to dig deep to reposition its existing services as user-friendly.
Foley reported that Mehdi identified two services, the "Your Phone" and Cortana, as ways that Microsoft would begin re-addressing consumers
Your Phone, an application to connect a phone to a PC to share photos and other information, seems to be a weak attempt to replicate a feature that virtually all manufacturers already provide somehow, whether Android itself or with manufacturer-specific applications that are delivered with laptops and tablets.
It's easier to argue that mobile apps for Android and iOS, like Microsoft Launcher, more explicitly serve the consumer. But they represent a small fraction of the users on each platform.
Cortana, on the other hand, is a true consumer service. The problem is that there is little evidence that the majority of Microsoft users have adopted it.
In 2016, Microsoft revealed that Cortana had responded to six billion queries since the launch of Windows 10 – but the number of users when I sat down with the head of Cortana Javier Soltero earlier this year, he said that Cortana's role should extend well beyond Windows, like Office and other services, to provide useful advice, context, and more.
The problem with this particular strategy is the line that Microsoft has to carefully walk. If it's too subtle, Microsoft users might not notice Cortana's assistance.
But a vocal component of the Windows base reacted indignantly to the pop-up "ads" in Windows that suggest users are taking advantage of OneDrive, Edge, or other services. All it takes is a mistimed "Can I help?"
Credit: IDG Somewhere in the middle, however, are the Microsoft applications and services that explicitly address the consumer – and have been the first on the line of fire in recent years.
For some reason, Microsoft killed the Zune music player, and later the Groove Music music service, but then set up an ebook in the bowels of Microsoft Edge.
and we have all witnessed the prolonged disappearance of Windows Phone – although his heart still beats weakly with a sporadic update.
Does "Modern Living Services" foreshadow the rebirth of another Windows phone or even the Andromeda dual-screen rumor? ? Who knows.
How Microsoft Must Convince Consumers
That's What Sums It Up Mehdi's commitment: substance versus semantics. Microsoft still maintains a fragmented consumer offering, with movies, TV shows, and books in the Microsoft app store.
Players can debate which console is currently winning, but Xbox is clearly in the mix. Heck, even Solitaire is still buried in Windows – and yes, always with an optional subscription.
Credit: IDG However, it is not known who in Microsoft defends the cause of the consumer. There is no global public strategy
You can point to different parts of the business – the Xbox here, movies out there – to support an argument that Microsoft has maintained a presence of consumers. But as Microsoft has abandoned these applications and individual consumer services, this argument will crumble.
Any "modern life services" initiative must not only refocus existing products and services, but also rebuild those applications, one at a time. ] A more intelligent and ubiquitous Cortana? He is too vague to be significant (in the honor of Soltero, he admits that Cortana must be experienced, not described).
Credit: IDG Mehdi needs to offer a series of consumer-oriented apps and services, and then knock them out regularly.
Put a public face on the effort, convince the manufacturers of consumer equipment, launch an advertisement or two to promote it. Sell it
Otherwise, they are all meaningless words
(Mark Hachman's Report, PC World)
