"Sea Change" - Microsoft's November 1st announcement
Seems like Microsoft's 1999 vision for software as a service finally came of age on Tuesday. Offering both installed software and online software gives Micosoft the ability to decide if and when to cut into the Windows and Office businesses with online services.
If I were an ISV, I’d give serious consideration to the model Microsoft announced on Tuesday, http://news.com.com/Gates+Were+entering+live+era+of+software/2100-1016_3-5926237.html?tag=nl.
The idea is that major products will include both an installed components and a web services component. For instance, today people can buy an Xbox then pay for an online service called Xbox Live which let’s them compete against other users around the world. It’s a powerful combination of local and hosted software.
A future scenario might be an online folder that comes with Windows so that folks you trust (anywhere in the world) can drag-n-drop files into your Windows folder. By providing both installed software and hosted services, Microsoft now has the ability to draw the line between its installed software and its services. Also, Microsoft is now well-positioned to compete against pure hosted solutions. Here are some other interesting notes from Tuesday:
- Leveraged online services give a vendor a great view into how users are using their products so they can continuously improve the most important capabilities and fix problem areas
- Windows Update gives Microsoft the ability to quickly rev the installed side of a solution. Hosted solutions can easily be updated quite frequently to meet user demands
- Ad revenue is projected to grow from $15B to $115B by 2015. A lot of online services can be sponsored by ads so they are free for users. ISV's could also offer a premium version for users willing to pay and be spared the ads
Thoughts??
Kevin Boyle
SoCal Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
310-678-4886
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