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November 02, 2005
Microsoft launches advertiser supported live.com; developing countries may gain the most!
In a bid to catchup with Google and Yahoo, Microsoft has formally joined advertiser-backed web service offering with its new portal live.com.
The services in its intial iteration include instant messaging, VoIP that potentially may allow PC to regular phone service for free (at least during Beta testing the site is offering such functionality), RSS news aggregator and colloboration tools for businesses. In the long-term whether the company will offer its Office suite for free is the big question.
With emerging countries showing the largest growth segment for the PC business how a productivity software such as MS Office that costs almost nothing to duplicate is being sold at a price that is more than the annual income of many thirdworld citizens is beyond anyone's imagination.
Recently Sun and Google announced that they will develop a web-based version of Open Office productivity suite that competes with Micrsoft Office. As everything else at Google, the service will probably be free with the support of advertisers.
The web-based software model that Google pioneered allows a company to deploy and test new technologies instanteneously. Just like Japanese automakers in the 1970s this frequent cycle of small and continuous upgrades clearly is outpacing the competition that still utilizes the annual software upgrade cycle in the industry.
Microsoft's latest foray is probably a response to that of Google's into the desktop arena. A web-based Office product that is at least free for basic functionality and is cross platform not only will ensure Microsoft's relevance but allow many in developing countries use the product without turning into software pirates.
Posted by admin at November 2, 2005 08:07 AM