Microsoft quietly announced the closure of its bookstore. Thus, the corporation has taken another step away from the sale of traditional consumer goods and services. The only exception is the Xbox console.
The corresponding notice is posted in the Microsoft Store, and the Books tab has already been removed. And in the question and answer section, the company said what will happen to rented and free books. It is reported that the final service will stop working in July this year. Books rented as well as free editions will disappear from users' libraries at the same time.
The company also explained the reasons for the refusal. As it turned out, Redmond promoted electronic publications through their store, without using any advertising methods and marketing. And the books themselves could only be read through the Microsoft Edge browser, which has a 4,4% market share. It was impossible to download them to a PC.
In addition, Microsoft has a very serious competitor in this market - Amazon. There are a huge number of publications that can be downloaded and read in the full-featured Amazon Kindle app. And this is not to mention a lot of branded electronic readers.
This is not the first time that Microsoft has ignored the consumer market in favor of the corporate one. In 2017, the company closed the Groove music service. Also recently, the corporation refused to support the mobile version of Windows 10. It remains to be hoped that films, series and games will not suffer the same fate. Moreover, earlier Phil Spencer (Phil Spencer) promised to change the Microsoft app store specifically for gamers.
Source: 3dnews.ru