Microsoft Plans Network Device, New Web Strategy
Thread, this relates to Intel, in that the MS giant is attempting a new way to deploy software to the masses, as a service, not product.
It relates to Intel, in that power shifts from the box maker to the service provider, who then drives hardware decisions in this market space.
A counter move to AOL.
Amy J
From: seattletimes.com.
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The company unveiled its new online plans at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, saying it was shifting its focus from software as a packaged good to software as a service available on the Web. To Microsoft, which has built its vast empire largely on boxed software, the notion of software as service is a radical rethinking of its core business.
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Microsoft also announced plans for a network computer, called MSN Web Companion. Unlike a personal computer, the device runs on a small operating system and can be turned on instantly. Its sole function is to let users log on to the Internet and surf the Web. Microsoft didn't disclose who will make the device. A test version is scheduled to be completed later this year.
The device is the kind that Microsoft foes Larry Ellison of Oracle and Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems have long championed. They have seen network computers as a way to crush Microsoft's operating-system hegemony, because programming could run off the Web instead of a personal computer running Microsoft's Windows. Two weeks ago, Sun unveiled its latest network computer, the Sun Ray.
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Ballmer also hinted that Microsoft will offer a Web-based version of the company's popular Office suite of software soon.
"It's not in the far distant future," Ballmer said. "Probably far sooner that you might expect."
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