Bring Out Your Dead (Premium)

The reaction to the news this week that Microsoft is killing the ebook support in Edge and the Microsoft Store was fairly muted compared to previous retreats from consumer product and services. That makes some sense: Reading isn’t exactly a high-order activity on PC, and usage of this service was likely pretty low. Helping matters, Microsoft is also being generous to those who did---stupidly---buy and use its ebooks. Not only is it refunding all purchases, but it is even providing a $25 credit to those who actually annotated ebooks.

Put simply, Microsoft’s retreat from ebooks isn’t offensive. In fact, one might argue that just getting into ebooks---and doing so through a web browser---is the more offensive act. Pointless, even. Misguided. And nonsensical compared to other services which the software giant previously abandoned, like Groove Music Pass. Surely---surely---there is a much bigger market for music than there is for ebooks. Especially from a company whose customer base is largely relegated to PCs, not mobile devices.

Which begs the question. Microsoft killed music and ebooks. But it’s somehow decided to keep its music and TV shows service---imaginatively titled Movies & TV, the same exact name as the similar Google service---while not even bothering to offer it on mobile, ever. That alone should give anyone pause when it comes to purchasing videos from a company that shows zero interest in consumers. Though some will argue that Microsoft’s Movies & TV service continues because of Xbox One for some reason. Because in this fantasy world, so many people are using a loud and expensive video game console to watch rented movies.

I don’t see it. And I expect the Microsoft will bow to the inevitable there, too, and kill off Movies & TV at some point. Perhaps it will start by moving to rentals only.

I suspect the reason it hasn’t done so already is that it will be more expensive: Where very few customers ever purchased an ebook from Microsoft, let alone annotate it---seriously, can you even imagine doing that?---there must be a reasonable audience size for movie and TV show purchases. Where each can be quite expensive: A new movie is often $15 to $20.

Partially offsetting the cost of doing right by these customers, Microsoft can lean on its compatibility with Movies Anywhere. So some portion of each customer’s movie library will always work elsewhere---iTunes, Google Movies & TV, and more---as long as you’ve synced through Movies Anywhere. That won’t help for purchases made with studios that to do participate in Movies Anywhere, however. And it won’t help with TV shows either. So there’s your problem.

What else might Microsoft kill?

Cortana as an end user-facing service, certainly. The digital personal assistant that couldn’t isn’t even available worldwide, so many Microsoft customers would barely even notice. I can only assume that separating Cortana from Start Search in Win...