Microsoft Bussiness Module used to excite me a lot. Their business module is based on low price Large volume, similar to Wal Mart. In fact I did write about that at one point
here.
Microsoft was able to beat Apple in this area using same concept. Apple was always more expensive, Microsoft concentrated instead its effort on building software at cheap prices and let others do the hardware. More and more companies came abroad and more and more people liked to buy it for its price tag. Soon every desk had a computer with Microsoft Logo stamped on it.
Other areas Microsoft lacked such as Databases, customized software and others. The reason is they couldn't apply their business module that fast because the volume is not there, IE; they can't reach everyone as in windows. But even then, SQL Server came a big contender, and Visual Studio stole many developers from Java ground, I personally know many Java developers that left Java without saying good bye, my company is leaning toward Microsoft again for the same reason. Microsoft again is playing the same tune..but cheaper.
Now came Google... A company that charges nothing on its product which is available to all on the internet for free... They are using the same business module but in much extreme extents. The money comes from advertisements companies buy because of their traffic but they never (yet) force you to buy anything.
Microsoft' search engine still lacks a lot of simplicity but that is not the reason they will always be second or third best at this game but it is a strong reason. Microsoft likes to really complicate things. Things get really ugly before they get better for some reason. What people need is simply to type a search criteria and come up with an answer as soon as possible. No complicated customization and no need for settings. Go to
live.com and check it out. Try searching for images or do one of their customizations and compare them to Google.
But the big reason that Microsoft will not be able to side Google is that Google will not hold on improving its software for any reason other than giving you simple and great software. Microsoft's business module needs to market something, build something, offer it for low price then take away some features and sell them separate or increase their prices. This was carried unfortunately on the web. What they did on
hotmail.com for example, they gave you calendar and other features, then they stopped and asked for yearly fee. Also they gave you 2MB and charge yearly fee for 25MB. At one time,
hotmail.com was offering 2MB while Google was offering 2GB. Microsoft's
group on msn is still sitting at 3MB while everywhere the disk space is offered for free in GigaBytes.
Unless Microsoft really changes its business on the Web from the roots up, and I don't see it happening anytime soon. With the introduction of
live.com it is apparent that they will not be able to compete with Google easily. What will Google do next beside keep creating more innovative and great software? Can they compete with Windows? can they offer a thin client so people don't need to have Windows anymore? I bet you there are already plans for some similar ideas.
