It could be deja vu all over again tomorrow when Microsoft holds a
press briefing to discuss its strategic plans for the Web. It seems
like only yesterday (actually, 1995) when journalists were called to an
Internet Strategy Day
in Redmond to hear Bill Gates talks about how he was going to change
the direction of the Titanic to after this new fangled thing called the
Internet. If truth be told, Microsoft badly under-estimated the
Internet and scrambled to catch up – something that's possible if you
have billions of dollars to fix your strategic mistakes. As hard as it
is to believe, Microsoft is facing the same challenges it did 11 years
ago – the Web has changed how consumer use software, and Microsoft is
arguably behind the eight-ball. As Salesforce.com and Google have
demonstated, a growing amount of software and services are being
distributed online, rather than in plastic CD cases. Instead of wating
months for fixes and improvements, Web-based software/services are
continually upgraded to address problems and
consumer demands. Microsoft has little choice but to make its consumer
and corporate software (Office, etc.) more user and Web-friendly. It
will be interesting to see what Gates and his new lieutenant, Ray Ozzie,
unveil tomorrow. Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund is speculating a
new, served-based version of Office will be spotlighted, which is a
no-brainer. Also look for instant-messaging to become part of other
Microsoft applications.
Speaking of Google and the Office market, it is interesting to see that Google plans to hire some programmers to improve Sun's OpenOffice
application. “We use a fair amount of open-source software at Google,”
said Chris DiBonna, manager of Google's open-source programs. “And we
want to make sure open-source ensures competitiveness within the
industry.” That sounds like a shot across the proverbial bow if you ask
me.