What hovers ahead - Strategic moves by the giants

The dawn of computers. From the early ages of computers, we have traveled a lot. Today, computer is a necessity. Along with computers came a bunch of companies revolutionizing the digital world. Microsoft became synonym with PCs. Where there is domination, there will be someone who will challenge that dominance. Yes. I am talking about the battle between the OS giant Microsoft and the search giant Google. Ever since Google announced the Chrome OS, there have been a number of developments happening. People who hate MS products welcomed the move. The next move was from MS with the news of MS making office suite available for free over web by 2010. As we know Google offers its own office suite for free over web.

While analyzing these moves, naturally the question arises. What could be the strategic thinking behind these moves? Many people argue in many different ways. We need to look behind and beyond the developments that are leading to these strategic moves by these companies.

First let us consider the Chrome OS. Microsoft controls almost 90% of the OS market. Clearly MS dominates the OS market. But hold on. Microsoft may be riding on the success waves but failing to recognize the changes? As more and more applications are accessed through browser, as netbooks are becoming more popular, the need for OS based on the browser is fast becoming a reality. Yes. The new reality would be the desktop loosing ground to the web and the OS loosing the ground to browser. That is where Google is trying to push hard and the result is the Chrome OS. With rich web based apps in Chrome OS, Google is trying to break the MS dominance in the OS market. Another area is the netbook market which is the fastest growing segment of the PC market. Obviously netbooks are not as powerful as their predecessor notebooks and are primarily used for remote access to web based applications. That means Chrome OS is a perfect match for netbooks. Think of Cloud Computing. Vendors might prefer Chrome OS for it is faster than windows. So if we think the future to be a place where web would become a substitute for the desktop and browser would become a substitute for the OS, Google’s strategy seems to be in the right direction.

Now - as any incumbent does – MS came up with the offer of Office suite to be available over web for free by 2010. Is it a smart move? The supporters of the MS argue on the human factor. According to a report, number of paid users of Apps suite is still in its nascent stage. Though there are significant players - such as Google - in the apps suite, MS by its dominant presence is a de facto choice for the customers if no other reasons than habit. Whilst there are cheaper applications available such as Gmail, the habit of using exchange would make the shift difficult. Initially when web based applications’ growths were slow, MS maintained its traditional office suite. Now when the market is changing, MS would not be making much from its Office suite. By launching Office 2010 web suite, MS entered the web apps targeting the mobile, netbook users. So, the timing of the introduction of web based office suite is to spoil or baffle the Google’s growth, there by making the IT departments to cling to their employees’ habits.

Quite interesting moves by the corporations. We need to wait and see what happens next…

-Deepak

(Courtesy bnet)