Microsoft reveals its grand plan for winning back consumer “magic”

Microsoft has outlined how it plans to use a new suite of apps, services, and features to win back the "magic" that it admits it has lost with consumers in the last couple of years.

Speaking at its Inspire partner show, Microsoft exec Yusuf Mehdi announced the company’s new “Modern Life Services”, which will sit at the core of the company’s digital products (via ZDNet).

Mehdi admitted that Microsoft has historically suffered from a lack of focus. While competitors like Spotify or Netflix are able to focus on music and video respectively, Microsoft has tried to do a little bit of everything for consumers.

Now, Microsoft wants to be known as a company that focuses on productivity, regardless of whether you’re using its services for work or personal tasks. One such example is Outlook, which is increasingly focused on providing a solid work calendar for people to use.

The hope is for you to be able to access these services from wherever you need, be it on Windows, through a web portal like Outlook, or on mobile platforms like iPhone and Android.

For example, the ‘Your Phone’ Windows 10 app is aimed at bridging the gap between mobile and desktop by letting you answer text messages on the latter, and letting you drag and drop files easily between the two.

Software to match the hardware

This software push ties into the recent hardware announcement of the budget Surface Go tablet.

For what it is, the budget tablet (which by default runs a stripped down version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 S) looks like a serviceable netbook replacement, but Microsoft’s Windows app store isn’t as strong as Android or iOS.

With this latest software push, Microsoft should ensure that its first-party apps are up to the task, even if third-party support doesn’t reach the same levels as its touchscreen focused competitors.

What do you think Microsoft has to do to win back the consumer “magic”? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook @TrustedReviews.