Microsoft and Google Duke It Out For the Future

Hugh Pickens writes "There is a long article in the NYTimes, well worth reading, about the future of applications and where they will reside — on the Web or on the desktop. Google President Eric Schmidt thinks that 90 percent of computing will eventually reside in the Web-based 'cloud.' Microsoft faces a business quandary as it tries to link the Web to its existing desktop business — 'software plus Internet services,' in its formulation. 'Microsoft will embrace the Web while striving to maintain the revenue and profits from its desktop software businesses, the corporate gold mine, a smart strategy for now that may not be sustainable,' according to the article. Google faces competition from Microsoft and from other Web-based productivity software being offered by startups, and it is 'unclear at this point whether Google will be able to capitalize on the trends that it's accelerating.' David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School, says the Google model is to try to change all the rules. If Google succeeds, 'a lot of the value that Microsoft provides today is potentially obsolete.' Microsoft used to call this 'cutting off their air supply."

Comments

M$ is Scared

[Erris]

the web-based model falls flat as soon as people actually look at what is available for free.

No, some things work better when they are run by an independent third party over the web. Other companies are going to run Google style services on their own but Google has a head start and important mind share. The value of networks is a product of the number of participants and there's lots of collaborative work that Google can offer. User and technical groups, for example, are best run independently of any single company. Schmidt has it right when he says individual tools and Google services are complementary. The only real threat this poses to M$ is a way around M$'s file format lock in, but even there Google is using free formats that M$ can use. M$ can only see Google services as a real threat if they have zero confidence in their ability to compete in a free market (they can't so they are right, ha ha).

People who play nice are going to win. Google is playing nice and they are going to Fucking Kill (TM, Steve Ballmer) M$. If Google quits playing nice, someone else will use the same free tools to run Google out of business.