When the left hand…
Imag via: www.charlton.demon.co.uk
Not to get topical, but I thought today’s news about Microsoft offering online versions of some of its most popular business applications was amusing given my post from last week about rich-Internet applications. According to the WSJ, Microsoft is:
“…wading into a business that Google, Salesforce.com Inc. and others are aggressively promoting. So far, those Internet services haven’t significantly eroded Microsoft’s business. The online services are an attempt to keep it that way.”
This is classic Microsoft strategy – when outflanked by a competitor, attack head on using exactly the same tactics that your competitor is using.
Rather than simply moving applications online, it seems to me that Microsoft had an opportunity to create x-Internet versions of its applications which delivered a richer user experience than Google’s offerings while also delivering many of the benefits of an online application. In doing so, they could have helped to prove the superiority of the Silverlight/WPF approach while also dealing a blow to Google where they aren’t as strong.
I think the failure to take advantage of their own strengths is also a classic Microsoft flaw. Even though Google has grown, it still feels as if there’s someone who’s keeping track of all the pieces on the board.