Imagine the following scenario: You’re Microsoft — the world’s largest, most profitable software company. Several thousand of your top channel partners are about to meet you in New Orleans for a massive conference. Everyone is wondering if you can (A) retain your established software franchises while (B) pushing deeper into cloud and software as a service (SaaS). Then, an unexpected hurricane blows into town. It’s called Google Chrome OS — a new Linux operating system. Now what?
That’s the situation facing the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09), which runs July 13-16 in New Orleans. During the event, Microsoft will provide numerous updates on Windows 7, Office 2010, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, Windows Azure and the company’s overall Software Plus Services strategy.
But with a single blog post on July 7 — announcing Google Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system — the search giant has once again changed the rules of the game. In a word, Google’s timing was “brilliant.”
Bloggers, IT journalists and business reporters are spending this week examining what exactly Google Chrome OS means to the operating system market, the Internet, mobile computing, and the future of application development.
Many of those same journalists will converge on the WPC09 conference, armed with Google-related questions for Microsoft. It’s going to be a fun week for those who love to whip up conversation. But a challenging week for Microsoft.
Simply put: Microsoft has spent a year stirring up interest in Windows 7 and distancing itself from Windows Vista. Now, Google has injected itself into the conversation with a single blog post.
Balanced Perspective
Plenty of so-called pundits say the Microsoft empire is falling. No doubt, the company is under attack on multiple fronts. But channel partners are a loyal bunch. And several thousand of them will rally to Microsoft’s cause during WPC09 in New Orleans.
Oh, and did The VAR Guy mention that Microsoft’s net income was $2.98 billion in Q3? That’s not revenue, folks. It’s net income — down significantly from Q3 last year, but still a growing mountain of cash for Microsoft’s war chest.
Meanwhile, Google’s own channel strategy is just getting started. Sure, the Google Apps Reseller program has a reasonable following. But thousands of VARs and managed service providers continue to evangelize Microsoft Small Business Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint and a host of other solutions.
And while we’re on the topic of hosting, Microsoft’s Exchange and SharePoint seem to rank atop the list of applications that MSPs and VARs are hosting for customers these days.
Still, Microsoft must be worried about Google’s entry into the OS market. And Google timed the Chrome OS launch announcement perfectly. But Chrome OS faces multiple questions. And Windows 7, quite frankly, looks pretty promising.
Let the games — at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 — begin.
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Tags: Business Productivity Online Suite | Exchange Online | Google Chrome Operating System | Google Chrome OS | Hosted Exchange | Hosted SharePoint | Microsoft BPOS | Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 | Office Communications | Office Live Meeting | Office SharePoint | Software Plus Services | Windows 7 and Office 2010 | Windows Azure | Windows Small Business Server 2008 | WPC09
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Update: Here’s a healthy dose of Google Chrome Skepticism from All About Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley.
Thanks for the informative article. No BS or wild speculation. Enough info and links to make it very interesting.
Here is some speculation… it doesn’t seem to me that Windows 7 offers a lot more than what XP offers in terms of netbook functionality. But then there may be no need.
Hopefully, Chrome will offer significantly more than Linpus, Xandros, and Suse (Ubuntu remix works pretty well on my particular netbook but there are enough reports of problems on other models).
If Chrome actually works… I mean really and truly works with minimal effort… and non-Google Linux doesn’t improve significantly, it’s easy for me to see Google grabbing most of Linux-on-netbook systems. Desktop Linux is now so good that nothing else makes sense, for many of us, on desktop boxes, but the story is different on netbooks.
[...] Imagine the following scenario: You’re Microsoft — the world’s largest, most profitable software company. Several thousand of your partners are about to meet you in New Orleans for a massive conference. Everyone is wondering if you can (A) retain your established software franchises while (B) pushing deeper into cloud and software as a service (SaaS). Then, an unexpected hurricane blows into town. It’s called Google Chrome OS. Now what? [...]
Think of long term, cloud it coming. It will develop over the time but it is more evolved idea as compared to traditional desktop based systems. Microsoft expanded so much just because of no competition. Now its different. Also Microsoft is going to try to make market by putting their products online. If Microsoft wants to survive they need to revive their business model and also trying hiring “some smart peolple from industry” and then do what suggest not puppet employees.
Darwin: It’s been almost a year since The VAR Guy wrote the blog entry above. But our resident blogger appreciates you re-starting the conversation on this thread.
Microsoft does hire “smart people”… all the time. But those smart people must balance new innovations with Microsoft’s legacy business. That’s a tricky balancing act.
-TVG