All the big names in the Operating System Market are making their offerings free. Now the industry is moving completely away from making profits on that end. We’re heading into an era of free operating systems and we’re going to give you the evidence as to why.
Evidence #1 The Maverick Macintosh Operating System
Maverick is a free OS from apple. That’s right, a major leading company is releasing a major OS for free. 10.9 Mavericks is going to be their latest update to OS X and will be completely free. This cuts out some of their profit margin, but Apple already makes most of their profits on hardware and branding. This is a huge shift in the market.
Evidence #2 The Steam Operating System
While they are marketing this new platform, the price will almost certainly be free unless something huge changes. They also are making their profits on the hardware and other software they sell. That has not changed. Steam OS is just a bonus in order to get people to buy more.
Evidence #3 The Rising Popularity of Linux Based Systems
Many of us forget that Android and other popular programs are Linux-based. Which is, at its heart, a free system. Phone companies and many other hardware manufacturers are, you guessed it, making their money in other areas. One of the ways that developers can earn money from free systems is by hosting on Ubuntu, Debian, or other operating systems, such as Minecraft servers, whether they are meant for gaming or for other purposes. For more information regarding this, you may want to visit Linode.
The Verdict – Paid Operating Systems are Dying
Microsoft will have to move away from them in the future. Companies that want to build their business model around selling an operating system are going to have to change. What impact will this have on gaming? We foresee two things:
- Some companies will raise costs slightly on their other products. Many will keep them at nearly the same level. This could have an effect on some games.
- Many companies need to completely reorganize their profit models. This could lead to any number of things in gaming.
At the very least this is a huge shakeup in the computer industry.
Why the Free-to-Play Model Works and Why Some Companies are in Trouble
This system works because you get overall larger profit margins. It’s not a complicated concept. By making it free you now have someone who wouldn’t have bought it at any price using it. It also gives greater incentive to use the system, as everyone loves something free. The companies that are not set up for this are going to have to change. For example Microsoft is going to have to put out more software and focus on putting out good games. Unless they can improve their margins on that end they’re doomed to fail in this market. Of course with their sheer resources they can probably do that but it goes back to the point of this whole thing and in many ways all of my writing: the gaming market is changing massively in our lifetime. We’re watching it do so minute by minute. We should all be taking note of the changes.
