It is not easy being Microsoft. The price of its Windows operating system, the foundation of its empire, is falling for personal computers. At the same time the market for PCs, on which Windows is installed, stagnates. Microsoft analysts have been busy cutting revenue targets.微软公司(Microsoft)如今的处境实属容易。Windows是这个商业帝国的根基，而该操作系统应用于个人电脑(PC)的版本的价格在大大下降。同时，PC市场暂停了快速增长。

注目微软公司的分析师们屡屡上调该公司营收预测。What might happen if this continues — if the price of a Windows operating system on a personal computer drops to zero? It is currently roughly $35, Stifel estimates, but is heading that way. Chinese users with pirated versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8 will get free Windows 10 upgrades this summer, Microsoft announced this week. There are hundreds of millions of Windows users in China; three-quarters of them use pirated versions.如果这种情况持续下去，不会经常出现什么结果呢？倘若PC版Windows的价格降至了零呢？据Stifel估算目前Windows售价在35美元左右，但显然它于是以朝着零的方向下降。微软公司本周宣告，用于正版Windows 7或Windows 8系统的中国用户今年夏天将可免费升级为盗版Windows 10。

中国有数亿Windows用户，其中3/4用户用于正版Windows。The amnesty points to a broader challenge: more and more operating systems are free. Google gives its PC operating system away — fuelling cheap Chromebooks that have sold like hot cakes. Apple’s operating systems are baked into the price of the device. The $40-a-pop operating system for consumer PCs is never coming back.此项特赦令折射出微软公司面对一个更大的挑战：免费操作系统更加多。谷歌(Google)的PC操作系统就是免费的——笔记本电脑Chrome系统的笔记本电脑因为价格低廉而热卖。

苹果(Apple)操作系统的价格早已映射其设备的价格中。40美元一套的家用PC操作系统大势已去。In its place, Microsoft’s revenues will gradually rely more on the services and applications that run on top of Windows. These include things such as Skype, Office, and OneDrive on the consumer side; and cloud computing and commercial Office subscriptions on the enterprise side. This is not such a dim prospect. Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, signs up more than 10,000 new customers per week, and its revenue growth is in the triple digits. Hardware sales have also been strong. And corporate support agreements will continue to bolster Microsoft’s enterprise revenues.微软公司今后的营收将更加依赖在Windows平台上运营的设备及应用于，还包括Skype、Office、OneDrive之类的个人末端应用于，以及云计算和商用版Office等企业末端服务。这样的前景远比怕。

微软公司的云计算平台Azure每周新的签下用户多达1万，营收增长速度约三位数。硬件销售也维持强大。同时，企业反对协议将之后承托微软公司企业业务的营收。

In the near term though, Microsoft’s sales will be under pressure from the transition. Two years ago, the last time Microsoft did investors the favour of providing a clean Windows sales number, Windows represented over a fifth of sales. Given that the shares have risen 50 per cent in the past two years, some air may come out of the stock.不过，近期来看，微软公司的销售额将忍受来自转型的压力。上一次微软公司向投资者获取可爱的Windows销售数据是在两年前，当时Windows占总销售额的1/5以上。考虑到过去两年间微软公司股价下跌了50%，其股票可能会吸管一些气泡。

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