I think it was a couple of years ago, when they revealed this as a part of their long term strategy to make their software subscription-based, rather than buy-it-once.
Office, Windows, and all will some day all require a monthly/yearly subscription to use... unless their plans change of course.
Similar as what Intel/MS want to do with Computers - you have a terminal at home and you "rent" a computer in the cloud. If you want it to be more powerful to play games on, you pay more to unlock the power than if you want only a computer to browse the net on. Your data and programs will be accessible from any terminal anywhere, but people will be paying more on average than they are paying now. None of that "buy a computer for $700 that will last for 8 years" - more like "pay $20..30...60/month" to use a computer at home.

 

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You bite your tongue

 

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I do not think monthly subscription will really fly for an OS or for a PC. MS is not in hardware business and it would be bad idea to even try.

Though, it is a fear that MS will start charging for Service Packs and selected updates. Which many people will not do then, thus causing alot of security holes to sit out there. It is human nature.

You might also see a huge delay in going win8, since it took this long for many to give up on XP.

 

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