Microsoft is to give away Windows Phone OS free of charge on devices with screens under nine inches, including smartphones as well as smaller tablets.
A license fee will still apply to business devices.
The news was delivered as the company’s new chief executive Satya Nadella appeared at its Build event in San Francisco in front of 5,000 developers ‘ a key group that he needs to win over.
Analysts claim that a shortage of apps for handsets running Windows software has been one of the main things holding the company back in the smartphone wars.
The company also showcased universal Windows apps at its Build developer conference, allowing developers to create a single app that works across Windows PCs, tablets, phones, and even Xbox One.
“All of us want the same app experiences across all devices,” Microsoft’s David Treadwell said.
Developers will benefit from Microsoft tools that allow it to tweak an app’s interface based on the form factor it’s running on, and whether it’s being used with or without a mouse and keyboard. For Xbox One, developers will be able to tweak their apps to use the controller and Kinect.
Consumers will benefit from Microsoft’s universal app approach because a single purchase will grant access to every platform.
Up to now, Microsoft has charged phone and tablet makers between $5 and $15 per device to use its Windows system, as it has done successfully at higher prices for many years with Windows on personal computers. Hardware makers factor the cost of that into the sale price of each device.
The company had previously been giving away its Windows Phone OS for free in India. Although there was no word on whether that trial has been a success.
“Our vision, simply put, is to thrive in this world of mobile first, cloud first,” said Nadella. “Our goal is to really build platforms, create the best end-user experiences, the best developer opportunities and IT infrastructure for this ubiquitous computing world.”