SAST Wingees

OfficeLIVE – Pre-emptive move by MS

There have been several thoughts about the evil empire’s next steps and strategy to dominate Web 2.0 and crush Google. My friend had a post wondering what the new sites were all about. Well, with the latest announcement about WindowsLive and OfficeLive, I am ready to place my bets with MS. Why? follow the money of course. Background: With the Google alliance with Sun, there has been several rumors that they will come up with an AJAXed Web2.0 version of OpenOffice, offer it for free thus hurting MS in the most profitable Office solutions. I think MS is taking a pre-emptive strike here by announcing OfficeLive. If Google/Sun offers this for free based on Ad revenue, the solution can only attract the personal and casual users for 2 reasons: 1.  Think of it: If I am writing a love letter, I wouldnt mind ads of cards, teddy bears or choclates coming up on the side. But if I am working on a technical architecture or business case document for my client, I sure dont want any ad to pop up, however relevant it is. 2. Privacy: I dont think many corporations would be happy to trust a 3rd party with the corporate documents and spreadsheets. This is where MS solution integrated with Sharepoint has advantages. Sharepoint is already sold well, by integrating the same with a web-based Office solution and charging the corporate on a per-user basis or no. of concurrent connections would be the killer. With the right pricing model, MS can make inroads into corporates and get them locked in. No ads, no privacy issues – the documents are still within the firewalls. Unless Google team comes with a killer idea/solution that can lock in the corporate world, MS would remain a clear winner. For now, MS would be organizing worlds information. Making it universally accessible and useful is where Google has a leg up and MS is still fighting. As the ancient chinese saying goes, we are truly living in interesting times !