As of November 2015, Microsoft’s Windows took up roughly 97 percent of S. Korea’s operating system (OS) market. At the end of July last year, Microsoft released Windows 10 and has been offering free upgrades to Windows 10, which will end on July 29, 2016. Still, Windows10’s share of the Korean market is very low.
When Microsoft Windows’ global market share was pretty high, Microsoft charged consumers $100-$300 for an upgrade.
However, the emergence of various operating systems has heated up market competition and Microsoft has been losing out to Google and Apple in the mobile OS market. Against such a backdrop, Microsoft has been offering free upgrades to Windows 10 but Korean users are not so excited about such a generous offering.
Then, why Windows 10’s market share isn’t rising in a situation where free upgrades to Windows 10 are available
Individual users have no reservations about upgrading to Windows 10 because it is lighter and safer. However, it’s a different story for large companies, SMEs and microenterprises
As Microsoft ended support for Windows XP, they managed to migrate to Windows 7. Groupware that ensures work continuity and other work systems are not ready for Windows 10.
In addition, hefty amounts of money need to be spent on building a work system needed for upgrading to Windows 10. Since the economy is in the doldrums, companies are reluctant to open their purse.
The problems is that large companies dragging their feet in upgrading to Windows 10 is making SMEs and microenterprises, i.e. suppliers to large companies, vulnerable to security threats.
When large companies work with financial service providers, they require financial service providers to set up a work system similar to their systems. Financial service providers, which deal with personally identifiable information, are also asked to install programs that make their systems interoperate with those of large companies.
However, the problems is that what SMEs try to access is Internet Explorer 10 or older versions, for which Microsoft ended providing security patches on January 12. Some large company even distributed patches preventing upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 to its suppliers.
Unlike large companies, SMEs and microenterprises have neither the budget to take additional security measures nor any department fully committed to online security.
In contrast, large companies are running computer rooms separately and have teams dedicated to installing and managing computation and security equipment. Having a computer room staffed with IT experts might be just wishful thinking on the part of most SMEs.
Though some medium-sized enterprises are protecting their system with firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs) or unified threat management (UTM), small-sized enterprises and microenterprises make do with security patches or vaccines. Except for security patches, their systems are protected only with vaccines.
To sum up, South Korea is an IT powerhouse on the outside but pathetically a big frog in a small pond on the inside, which is unable to free itself from the shackles of the past.
