TECHNOLOGY

Information Systems: What We Do With It

Information Systems: What We Do With It

Brief overview of Microsoft

Microsoft is a technology based corporation, headquartered in the USA. Microsoft has a multinational existence (Microsoft, 2012). It has its central headquarter in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft provides a wide range of computer oriented products and services which are developed, manufactured and licensed in the country and transported at a worldwide level (Microsoft, 2012).

Summary of the Article

Microsoft, from its inception, has employed a distribution strategy based on limited retailers. These retailers used to distribute and market the products of Microsoft, and so far have been successfully able to do their desired functions. This assumption can be deduced on the basis of the current standing of Microsoft in the market and the market share it possesses. It is very recent that Microsoft has announced that it will expand the sales of the surface tablet to more retailers. This decision is in negation to the old distribution strategies of Microsoft, which confining itself to a few and conventional distribution channels. It is believed that Microsoft is most likely to opt for Best Buy as its new retailer. The current way of buying the tablet is via the online existence it has in terms of the giant online presence, as well as few retail outlets that the company has in various locations along with the pop up stores available.

The advantage of such a decision lies in the fact that Microsoft's current mode of selling its products and services tends to confine its sales since there are many potential buyers who have a habit of spending on the tablet product-line when it comes to the holiday shopping seasons. Thus the new strategy is advantageous and addresses the issues associated with current sales of the Tablet product-line. This sales trend has been slow when it comes to the device considering the kind of distribution strategy. The device is said to be highly technology oriented as it has RT operating system along with windows 8. It is a hot product which should have a burst of early demand but apparently the opposite is happening. The forecast of Microsoft is to sell around 500,000 to 600,000 items in this quarter which seems to be highly unlikely when it comes to the current distribution strategy. Even the rivals have termed the distribution strategy of Microsoft as being unproductive and in total disarray. The ...