Microsoft prepping next Windows Live
Microsoft is getting ready to start public testing of the next version of its moviemaking and photo-editing software, but the company confirmed this week that the products won't run on Windows XP. — The new versions are part of a series of changes coming …
Context & Ripple Effects
The next Windows Live wave closes a loop opened by Microsoft's June 2007 reorganization around a software-plus-services strategy, which put Photo Gallery and Movie Maker at the center of the free client layer meant to sit on top of Windows. After the first public test drive of the combined suite in late 2007, this round of public testing marks the refresh cycle's next step — with one hard boundary: Microsoft has confirmed the new moviemaking and photo-editing builds will not run on Windows XP.
The timing lands inside one of Microsoft's densest launch stretches of 2010: within roughly ten days the company hit release-to-manufacturing on Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2, shipped Visual Studio 2010 with .NET Framework 4, and released Silverlight 4 to the Web. Dropping XP support for the consumer apps is consistent with that wave being built for Vista-and-later platforms.
First-order effects
- Windows XP users — still a large share of the installed base in early 2010 — lose access to the next generation of Microsoft's free photo-editing and moviemaking tools unless they move to Vista or Windows 7.
- Microsoft converts two of its most widely used free desktop apps into an explicit OS-upgrade lever ahead of the Windows 7 adoption push.
Second-order effects
- Cross-platform and web-based photo competitors gain a retention opening among XP holdouts who cannot take the update and must choose between upgrading Windows or switching tools.
- PC makers and retail channels get a fresh talking point for Windows 7 machines, since bundled Windows Live media apps will only match the newest hardware and OS combinations.
Third-order effects
- If Microsoft keeps gating consumer-app refreshes to current Windows versions only, legacy-OS retirement stops depending on security deadlines alone — application exclusivity becomes a structural forcing function for OS upgrades.
- Excluding the oldest install base also accelerates the shift of those users toward browser-delivered services, which is exactly where the software-plus-services strategy from 2007 pointed.
The trend: Microsoft is using its free consumer applications as a wedge to pull the remaining Windows XP base forward to Windows 7 and its connected-services stack.