Thoughts on Windows Live and Office Live Services, Nov 1

Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie of Microsoft announced two new services today in an event for press and analysts in San Francisco. (Michael Arrington attended the session, and uploaded photos to Flickr). The two services are:

• Windows Live ... an integrated collection of communication (email, instant messaging), browsing (sharing favorites), blogging (upgrade from MSN Spaces), search, and security tools. Consumer markets focus; most services are freely available, albeit with advertising support. Some subscription services will be offered too.


• Office Live ... a set of tools for small businesses to do business on the Web. Web site hosting, domain-branded email, Web analytics, and business management tools will be offered in three or so packages. The entry level package, Office Live Basics, will be advertising supported. One of the top tier packages, Office Live Collaboration, delivers a set of subscription-based business management services powered by SharePoint Services, such as project management, sales and collateral management, time and billing management, and more.

Both services can be customized and extended by Microsoft business partners.

Reaction and Analysis
Here's my immediate reaction to the new announcements, and some of the implications and issues at play:

• Office Live ain't about what most people call Office ... I know Microsoft is trying to extend the Office brand to all sorts of things, and that's fine, but Office Live isn't about Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which is what most people associate with that term. These announcements aren't an attempt to offer a Web-based office productivity suite, like the much vaunted but yet-to-be-seen Google Office.


• The partnering things will be most difficult ... Microsoft is taking on previous partners by releasing competitive services. Companies that have previously offered hosted SharePoint, for example, will find themselves in direct competition with Microsoft. It has to do it, and although it has been careful to say "we'll keep working well with others", this will be the hardest thing to pull off.


• These services will do very well ... there is no other conclusion. Microsoft touches almost everything, has links to almost everyone, and has an active partner base. Consumers at home will sign up for the Windows Live services, and small businesses that want "invisible IT" will see Office Live Services as a natural progression.


• Cross-platform stuff isn't so important ... These services are targeted at the large population of people who are happy to be 100% Microsoft. The integration between the hosted services and Windows on the desktop should be seamless and will be done well. People will like that ... just like the way I like the seamless integration between Mac on the desktop and the .Mac service offered by Apple.


• Windows Live Backup would be a good addition ... to enable seamless synchronization between "My Documents" on the desktop and "My Documents" in the cloud. This provides a level of (necessary) redundancy, and would facilitiate access to critical documents from any Internet-connected PC.

Are These Services for You?
Will you sign up for one or both of these services when they are available in 2006? Please let me know why, either by leaving a comment below, or sending me an email.

Comments

[Brian Hoogendam]

Michael - good analysis and as a MS shareholder, I love this move. I think they are being very proactive in announcing this, especially as Google gets more involved with Open Office. I think the big diff is that any product by Google will probably force you to give up all privacy of data so they can pound you with ads. Let's hope MS does not take that route. Privacy, or the perception of it, may be the key to winning in this case. Hope all is well in NZ.

Brian