Things have changed at Microsoft. Ever since Satya Nadella took the reins of the multi-billion dollar company, things have been different. The company has become quiet, and yet so prominent in the last few months; it’s a remarkable turn-around.
Nadella took over the company in February. In a little over 9 months, he has proven that Microsoft is still a major contender in the industry when many people were starting to lose faith. This is evident in Microsoft’s stock value; since his appointment, the value of the stock jumped about 133%. At the present moment, the value of Microsoft’s stock is only 10 points lower than its highest recorded value, and is also at the highest it has been in over a decade.
What has Nadella done to spark this newfound interest in an ancient company? Well the first noticeable change is that he kept the company working hard but working silently. The company has kept fading in and out of the spotlight since he started. For example, things were really quiet with Microsoft between February and April, until suddenly, they purchased Nokia. This was not exactly a surprise; Microsoft and Nokia had been working side by side for a long time before, but it was a huge move nonetheless. As soon as that deal became old news, the company brought into fruition the next generation of Surface Pro tablets. A more up-to-par version of the existing Surface Pro 2, the newest product is much sleeker, more intuitive, and, considering the ability to opt for an Intel i7 Processor, more powerful than many existing laptops.
Once again, as this announcement started to fade away, Microsoft stepped forward to announce its acquisition of Mojang: the creators of one of the biggest games in the world, Minecraft. Although they have not clarified what sort of changes to expect with the game, we are optimistic that it could only make the game more appealing. And following that, as if they have not done enough in the past few months, Microsoft once again surprised us all with the announcement of Windows 10. The announcement came as a shock to many average consumers, due to the fact that Windows 8.1 hasn’t been around for too long yet.
This new update seems to be a drastic overhaul that brings back the Desktop we all love, while still implementing the Metro UI in a more minimalistic fashion. A Technical Preview, readily available to the masses, immediately succeeded the announcement of the update. Average consumers are discouraged from trying this preview, due to the fact that it is still in the earlier stages, but it is still available to them for free. Microsoft continued to build forward after this huge announcement by announcing a partnership with Dropbox, a major cloud-based document sharing service.
This new partnership allows Microsoft to take its OneDrive suite to a whole new level, putting it ahead in the battle against Google’s Drive Platform and Apple’s iCloud Platform. They also recently updated their suite of apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as announced an upcoming update to their Android applications; allowing for better implementation of OneDrive and a more enhanced experience, very similar to that of the Microsoft Office Suite for desktop.
The fact that Microsoft is keen on bringing its service to Android and iOS is a direct example that Nadella is pushing the company in an entirely different direction than it has ever been in before.
Even after all that has been done in the past few months, it looks like Microsoft is still not done for the year. Last Friday, Microsoft teased an upcoming event regarding the Lumia line of smartphones. With Nokia now officially absorbed by Microsoft, this teaser implies the first ever Microsoft Lumia smartphone. This news comes just a week after it released its take on the smart-watch craze, Microsoft Band.
It is clear that Nadella has been putting in a lot of work to bring Microsoft back to the top of its industry, and we can’t wait to see how this impacts technology as a whole. Apple and Google had better watch out, because Microsoft is still in the game, and it’s swinging strong.
