As Microsoft and Google narrow their focuses on each other, they will either fail to notice the landscape is changing underfoot, or will be unable to adapt quickly enough. It’s not just naive optimism; there’s plenty of historical precedent. Just as Ford couldn’t build all the world’s cars, AT&T all the world’s telephones and IBM all the world’s computers – neither Microsoft nor Google will be able to write all the world’s software. In fact, the very rise of Google demonstrated this to Microsoft. As a result, the consumer and business software markets are poised to open up as never before….
The days of purely desktop-based applications are clearly numbered, but so are the days of exclusively web-based apps. Both Microsoft and Google are racing toward a happy medium. However, they aren’t the only players in town, not by a long shot. Both Mozilla and Adobe are well positioned to take advantage of desktop and web convergence. Companies offering solutions that connect desktop and web apps together will get their chance too. Calendaring and project management are two obvious choices, but every productivity app deserves to be re-examined.
Read this article, Elephants and Evolution, from the Read/Write Web
1 Comment
January 3, 2007 at 4:44 am
“The days of purely desktop-based applications are clearly numbered, but so are the days of exclusively web-based apps” … well said.
Good for the consumer, who now can see some innovation happen on the desktop-web connected software. For a long time, the desktop software market has been frozen.