Marketing the Operating System as a Product

[Integrating my blogs into one blog: This post is copied from my other blog]

Think about the scenario when Application Software does not require the
Operating System to run upon. Will any one purchase any operating system
for just shake of the viewing the file on his Hard Disk, for listing the
Hardware attached to his computer? In the desktop market no one will
spend even a single penny for software such as the Operating System
which only facilitates the Application software.

Now today Companies like Microsoft, Sun and Apple are fighting for
selling their Operating System in the market. I believe that the
marketing the operating system as a product requires different strategy.
It is not the same as you are selling other software in the market. But
the question is how we should market the Operating system as a product
in the market. Here I am listing some of the parameters that must be
taken care in designing and marketing Operating System.

1.Easy of Installing the Older Applications.
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Yes, I am talking about the backward compatibility of the Operating
System. When anyone is purchasing a new operating system he will look
for the compatibility of his older applications. No one will switch to a
new Operating System if new one is refusing to run the older and
existing Applications.

2.Conducive Development Environment
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The second most important stuff is the Development Environment on new
Operating system. The new Operating System must be able to cope up with
the new technological changes and must have the proper development
environment so that the developer can upgrade their Applications for new
features added in New Operating System. As well as the development of
new Applications must be easy and robust.
3.Non Irritating User Dialogs.
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Will anyone like to see frequent error messages and dialogs in new
operating system? By opinion about operating system is that its
underlying software and it should not communicate to the end user very
frequently. The user communication in New Operating System must be
minimized.

4.Other features
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Other features are obvious but not ignorable like Speed, Boot up Time,
Security, and Look and Feel.

Let's talk about the Microsoft's way of marketing the Operating System.
Microsoft is too rich in bringing the first 2 parameters. I mean the
Microsoft new Operating System is will backward compatible than anyone
in the market. Microsoft is also clever enough to bring the latest API
and development environment in the market. But due to some security
related concern of Microsoft the new OS is not good in avoiding the
Non-Irritating User Dialogs.