MIX08 – Microsoft Apps To Go Online?
It’s T-9 hours until I board a plane for Las Vegas and MIX08. Some last minute email-answering and news-grabbing led me to Techmeme, where Microsoft and what they might be planning to announce at MIX08 is currently dominating headlines in the blogosphere.
Nick Carr has inside information that leads him to believe that the software giant is planning to announce the launch of key applications (not least of which Office) online in the next two weeks:
Put your ears to the ground, my friends, for the Beast of Redmond may be stirring. I’ve heard that Microsoft has begun briefing its large enterprise clients on an expansive and detailed strategy for moving its software business into the cloud. If the report proves correct – and I make no guarantees – the company will unveil the strategy to the public either next week or the week after.
Until now Google has hogged pretty much all the attention in this space with Apps and Google Docs enjoying widespread adoption among individuals and small companies, though there are still questions as to whether the suite scales to enterprise grade. Start-ups like Zoho have also made some ripples, but nobody has produced an online suite of office services that can assuage the concerns and reservations of even the most progressive CIO’s.
One can’t help surmise that the already favourable associations the enterprise has with Microsoft’s flagship Office brand, combined with the obvious financial resources available to an imminent online offering, not to mention the valuable lessons Microsoft would have no doubt learned watching Google, Zoho and co. carving out this new space places them in a good position to dominate with whatever it is that they plan to launch.
Michael Arrington believes MIX08 could be the platform for this announcement, and interestingly also speculates an offline version of Silverlight to compete with Adobe Air. I know from pre-conference correspondence that Silverlight is a big part of the event – he’s probably spot on.
Only time will tell, and I’ll be sure to update you here!
Popularity: 2% [?]
