Thursday, November 03, 2005
Gates: We're entering live era of software: ZDNet Australia: News: Software:
"Kicking off what he called the 'live era' of software, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday in the United States that the company plans to launch new Internet-based complements to its core products.
Gates said Microsoft is working on two products, 'Windows Live' and 'Office Live,' that create opportunities for the company to sell online subscriptions and advertising. Both are targeted at smaller businesses and consumers....
Gates said that Windows Live is a set of Internet-based personal services, such as e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. It will be primarily supported by advertising and be separate from the operating system itself. Office Live will come in both ad-based and subscription versions that augment the popular desktop productivity suite.
"This advertising model has emerged as a very important thing," Gates said.
But free products won't replace paid software. Many of the Live releases will have payment tiers, Gates said, with the lowest levels free and ad-supported, and higher-end versions paid for by the user.
"We'll have licenses and subscriptions as well," Gates said. In many cases, companies will have a choice between running software on their own servers or as a Live service.
Acknowledging potential antitrust concerns, Gates said that Windows Live is built off published APIs (application programming interfaces) that its rivals will also have access to.
"It's a dramatic sea change," Gates said of the overall shift to online services.
"The live phenomenon is not just about Microsoft. It's partners, it's competitors...the whole space is being transformed."...
The Office Live service is mostly targeted at small businesses, said Rajesh Jha, a general manager at Microsoft who presented the demo of the service. He noted that 28 million of the world's 42 million businesses are companies with fewer than 10 employees.
Jha showed how small businesses like these can use Office online to set up Web sites with custom domain names and multiple e-mail addresses--all free. Initially, these sites will not carry ads, but Microsoft sees the feature as a revenue opportunity and expects it to eventually be ad-supported.
Another tool, called "Mojo," will enable a small group of users to work collaboratively on the same document--in the case of the demonstration, an Excel spreadsheet.
"We're always on the same page," Jha said. "This real-time service is going to be free."
He also showed some of the 22 applications that are part of the subscription service, including customer management tools and secure collaboration.
Office Live will be in invitation-only beta testing in the first quarter of next year, Jha said. That beta will also be limited to the U.S., he added.
More to come
Tuesday's announcement is more of a placeholder for other initiatives to come, Smith said. "I think part of why people look at this and say it looks sketchy is because it is. But it's a step in direction that they have to go in," he said.
Smith likened the announcement to Gates' Web call to action of a decade ago. "It's the beginning of a big change at the company that will take a long a time to see manifested in mainstream products," he said.
In the meantime, the new products help Microsoft better compete with online rivals. Although the traditional software industry is very profitable and well understood, online advertising is an important opportunity, Ozzie said. He praised Google for demonstrating some of the possibilities.
"Google is doing an amazing job of making that ad engine click on all eight cylinders." Ozzie said.
But he said that the industry has barely scratched the surface, pointing out that the market for online advertising could grow from US$15 billion now to US$150 billion by 2015."
"Kicking off what he called the 'live era' of software, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday in the United States that the company plans to launch new Internet-based complements to its core products.
Gates said Microsoft is working on two products, 'Windows Live' and 'Office Live,' that create opportunities for the company to sell online subscriptions and advertising. Both are targeted at smaller businesses and consumers....
Gates said that Windows Live is a set of Internet-based personal services, such as e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. It will be primarily supported by advertising and be separate from the operating system itself. Office Live will come in both ad-based and subscription versions that augment the popular desktop productivity suite.
"This advertising model has emerged as a very important thing," Gates said.
But free products won't replace paid software. Many of the Live releases will have payment tiers, Gates said, with the lowest levels free and ad-supported, and higher-end versions paid for by the user.
"We'll have licenses and subscriptions as well," Gates said. In many cases, companies will have a choice between running software on their own servers or as a Live service.
Acknowledging potential antitrust concerns, Gates said that Windows Live is built off published APIs (application programming interfaces) that its rivals will also have access to.
"It's a dramatic sea change," Gates said of the overall shift to online services.
"The live phenomenon is not just about Microsoft. It's partners, it's competitors...the whole space is being transformed."...
The Office Live service is mostly targeted at small businesses, said Rajesh Jha, a general manager at Microsoft who presented the demo of the service. He noted that 28 million of the world's 42 million businesses are companies with fewer than 10 employees.
Jha showed how small businesses like these can use Office online to set up Web sites with custom domain names and multiple e-mail addresses--all free. Initially, these sites will not carry ads, but Microsoft sees the feature as a revenue opportunity and expects it to eventually be ad-supported.
Another tool, called "Mojo," will enable a small group of users to work collaboratively on the same document--in the case of the demonstration, an Excel spreadsheet.
"We're always on the same page," Jha said. "This real-time service is going to be free."
He also showed some of the 22 applications that are part of the subscription service, including customer management tools and secure collaboration.
Office Live will be in invitation-only beta testing in the first quarter of next year, Jha said. That beta will also be limited to the U.S., he added.
More to come
Tuesday's announcement is more of a placeholder for other initiatives to come, Smith said. "I think part of why people look at this and say it looks sketchy is because it is. But it's a step in direction that they have to go in," he said.
Smith likened the announcement to Gates' Web call to action of a decade ago. "It's the beginning of a big change at the company that will take a long a time to see manifested in mainstream products," he said.
In the meantime, the new products help Microsoft better compete with online rivals. Although the traditional software industry is very profitable and well understood, online advertising is an important opportunity, Ozzie said. He praised Google for demonstrating some of the possibilities.
"Google is doing an amazing job of making that ad engine click on all eight cylinders." Ozzie said.
But he said that the industry has barely scratched the surface, pointing out that the market for online advertising could grow from US$15 billion now to US$150 billion by 2015."
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