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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (29450)	9/14/1999 8:46:00 PM
From: Teflon	Respond to of 74651

Microsoft Plans To Take Messaging Beyond Desktop Microsoft Plans To Take Messaging Beyond Desktop SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) said Tuesday it planned to take its instant messaging service beyond the desktop to allow communication over wireless phones, hand-held computers and WebTV boxes. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant did not say when it would deliver the new capabilities but the announcement was the latest shot in its battle with Internet giant America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), which dominates the huge instant messaging market. Microsoft unveiled a test version of its free MSN Messenger service in July, setting off a battle royal with AOL. Microsoft has attempted to make its software compatible with AOL's instant messaging system, which also is free, but America Online says that is unauthorized and has blocked the rival system. While the battle over a single standard rages on, Microsoft said it planned future versions that would be integrated with its MSN Mobile Service platform for portable and wireless devices. ''Regardless of what you choose to be your device or your platform, we want to make it possible to get the information and communicate,'' said Deanna Sanford, lead product manager for MSN. She said no time frame for the new versions was being disclosed. AOL already offers a test version of its instant messaging service for Windows CE-based hand-held computers and announced a deal in June that could lead to similar capability for users of 3Com Corp.'s popular PalmPilot line of devices, said AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley. ''We have been fairly aggressive in terms of our AOL Anywhere strategy,'' she said. ''We're probably leading the charge at this stage of the game.'' Microsoft said its MSN Messenger service had nearly 2.5 million unique users, compared with about 45 million for AOL Instant Messenger. Microsoft also said it made available a version of MSN Messenger for the Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) Macintosh platform. The software does not work with AOL's system, Bentley said. Teflon

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (29450)	9/14/1999 9:12:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

They said they were going to back off the consulting initiative in order to get more support from other consultants i.e. the big five. Basically the same problem IBM has faced. Once consulting firms get the option of providing a comparable product in the same price range, they will opt for Microsoft over IBM or Oracle. A company like IBM just can't give up that kind of business just to sell more software. I don't know if Oracle can either but I guess their strategy may be to give the appearance of cutting back on consulting in the hopes of having the Arthur Andersons of the world "push" their software. Is it any wonder that MSFT software gains so much popularity and so fast. I wonder how Sun Microsystems does business. I would appreciate finding out whether they follow an Oracle or IBM type of business model. Additional note on Oracle: They claim that 80% of IBM machines have Oracle databases. That is very interesting. While other consulting firms may focus on MSFT--SQL Server 7.0, IBM chooses to push the expensive stuff (my assumption)from Oracle simply because it is less of an enemy than Microsoft. I realize these are generalizations but i am only commenting on the tendencies of consultants when faced with choices of supplier.

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (29450)	9/14/1999 9:26:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

ORCL took great pains to say that Y2K had never been an issue with them and that it had not been a factor in their sales efforts. That part of it seems bullish for Microsoft. Ellison repeated twice that they didn't see a slowdown because of y2k except in the high-end of ERP. (He called that part of the market "grim", pointing out that the market has dried up because of Y2K.) What's interesting is that the mid and commerce segments where Microsoft competes for business with Oracle has not -- according to Ellison -- seen a slowdown because of Y2K. Either these folks were lying through their teeth, or Y2K is not having the effect on sales that had been predicted. It's especially significant that in this slow quarter, Oracle's growth in NT servers was 25% compared to 3% growth for Unix. As you said, JFD, Ellison took pains to suggest that those figures were a fluke, but even if they were, it certainly suggests that Microsoft has been doing well during this same period.