Microsoft 'put his hair on the neck' because of Gartner's prediction

Just half of what Gartner predicted in the "Technology Prospects 2012" report came true, the software giant was enough to sweat.

First and foremost, this reputable research firm believes that Apple's market share in the US and western European markets will double compared to today. Next, Gartner predicts that by the next five years, the number of people who leave their laptops at home will increase significantly compared to today.

The flat on the mobile playground

" Products that are capable of surfing the Web but are just as small as a mobile phone will reduce the price to a reasonable price, about $ 400.

50% of those wishing to work on "mobile" will switch to using this type of device, instead of the bulky laptop. With data storage services on the Web becoming more and more popular, users won't need to worry about laptop hard drives or flash memory chips anymore . "

These are gloomy forecasts for Microsoft's future. In addition to Windows Mobile operating system, Microsoft proved to be quite slow on mobile.

Chairman Bill Gates even confirmed that there will be no iPhone rivals at all, which means "leaving" the market for Apple.

Besides, it should be noted that the two most popular mobile products: Apple iPhone and Asus EEE mobile laptops do not use Windows operating system. Obviously, Microsoft's position in the mobile realm is not as unique as in traditional software.

The fact that future mobile devices have more and more streamlined designs to save electricity, shrink size . also cause a lot of difficulties for Microsoft. Thanks to Web software and "Web hard drive", the manufacturer does not need to cram too much processor or memory too big for its device.

Face burning with open source

Meanwhile, with Vista, Microsoft made the impression that " Microsoft's operating system always requires superior and advanced hardware. "

But as far as bad news is concerned, if compared to Gartner's fourth estimate, that within the next five years, 80% of commercial software on the market will use open source technology, more or less. .

" Many open source technologies are now mature, operating stably and getting good support from the development community. This is a great opportunity for businesses and individual users to save costs, enhance brand performance. On the contrary, ignoring this trend means you have lost a huge competitive advantage .

Regarding the "software-as-a-service" trend, Gartner predicts that by 2012, businesses will spend up to a third of their technology budget for Web services. Even more radical businesses have started building their IT infrastructure as a service right now.

However, it must be said again, 5-year forecasts do not always reach a high accuracy rate. And whether Gartner is an exception or not, let's wait and see.