Microsoft Steps-Up Battle With Google

Microsoft is set to broaden its battle with Google this week as it pushes ahead with online versions of some of its core software, including final plans for a “cloud” operating system designed to extend Windows to the internet. The news comes days after Google took aim at Microsoft with the announcement of a PC operating system of its own, dubbed Chrome OS.

The rival moves point to an intensification of the battle between the technology giants, with Google trying to extend its internet platform to PCs, and Microsoft moving in the opposite direction. While Google’s PC operating system is not due to appear in new computers until the second half of 2010, Microsoft’s cloud operating system will be launched formally this year.

The software company’s latest moves into internet services, due to be revealed at its annual partner conference in New Orleans starting on Monday, mark a milestone in the “software plus services” strategy it has pursued for three years.

After investing heavily in the datacentres and software development to support these moves, it is now ready to outline plans for internet versions of some of its key products. Among the most closely watched will be its plans for the next version of the Office suite of software applications, due to be launched early in 2010.

So far Google has had little success in selling corporate subscriptions to its own suite of lightweight online applications which rival Office, with paying customers said by the internet company to number only in the “hundreds of thousands”. But a free version of the software has attracted more than 15m users, putting pressure on Microsoft to offer more free elements of its own Office suite.

Steven Elop, head of Microsoft’s Office business, reiterated that the company’s aim was to extend the ways it offers its software to customers. Most analysts believe a free, stripped-down version of Office online to rival the free Google Apps service would do little to hurt Microsoft’s revenues, since it would only appeal to relatively small numbers.

Microsoft is also set to spell out pricing and launch plans for its internet-based operating system, called Azure. This will see it leapfrog Google in the business of selling computing resources over the internet, allowing developers to buy capacity to run their applications based on the amount of storage, bandwidth or other resources they use.

Amazon has taken the early lead in this market, selling access to the computer network it built up for its online retail operations. However, the large base of developers who already rely on Microsoft’s technology, and the company’s ability to use its massive scale to undercut on price, are likely to make it a significant force in the market.

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Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1c2cfb40-6f09-11de-9109-00144feabdc0.html

Tags: Steven Elop, head of Microsoft’s Office business, online versions of some of its core software, cloud operating system designed to extend Windows to the internet, Chrome OS, Azure, Global IT News, Global IT and Business News, Office Online,

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Google Attacks The Heart of Microsoft Directly

Google has taken direct aim at Microsoft’s core personal computer software business, with the announcement of a PC operating system to rival Windows.

The system, based on Google’s Chrome web browser, is designed for all classes of PCs, “from small netbooks to full-sized desktop systems”, and will be available in machines from “multiple” PC makers in the second half of next year, the company said.

Google also promised that the new software would solve many of the frustrations felt by users of Windows-based PCs, from slow start-up times to threats from computer viruses.

Google’s venture into the PC operating system business caps a steady move into software that has seen it encroach on to Microsoft’s turf. As well as a series of internet-based applications to rival Microsoft’s Office suite of software applications, those moves have included the Android operating system for mobile handsets and, last year, the Chrome Web browser.

Pushing those initiatives to their logical conclusion, Google said it would now extend Chrome to become a full PC operating system.

A number of PC makers had already started to explore using the open-source Android software on low-priced netbook computers – the fastest-growing category of PCs – and the announcement of the Chrome OS replaces that with a purpose-built piece of software that the company said would be better suited to PCs.

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better,” Google said in a blog note posted late on Tuesday in California.

Among the main attractions promised for the Chrome OS is much faster “boot” time to give users instant access to their e-mail and web browsers. That echoes a wider challenge to Microsoft from other software makers who have also targeted the slow start up times of PCs.

In other veiled attacks on the Windows operating system, Google added that users “want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them”, and that they “don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.”

Microsoft has faced considerable criticism over the slowness of its Windows Vista operating system, though the next version of its operating system, Windows 7, has already drawn good reviews for working far faster, particularly on low-powered, cheaper machines such as netbooks.

Google said the Chrome OS would first appear on netbooks in the second half of 2010, and that it was announcing the software now because it had already started discussions with hardware makers that wanted to use it in some their machines.

The new software, based on the so-called kernel, or core, of the open-source Linux operating system, had been designed to run Web-based applications such as those developed by Google itself, the company said, making it the first PC operating system developed from scratch for the internet age.

In another attack on one of the main pillars of Microsoft’s business, Google said developers would be able to write applications for the Chrome OS using standard web development tools – a challenge to Microsoft’s own developer tools business.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86b864c0-6b87-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Tags: Google Chrome Operating system, Microsoft Windows, Chrome OS, Global IT News, Windows 7, PC’s, Google Android, Google Chrome Web browser, Technology, Software, IT, Web apps, Netbooks,

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