After trying to downplay earlier this week
the problems it might have developing for Vista, Symantec is back to accusing -- and probably
with some justification -- Microsoft of wanting to
shut competitors out of the security market. Needless to say, this is going to be a battle on all fronts: legal, technological and psychological. Just keep in mind that Microsoft rarely takes serious losses in any of those kinds of battles.
The rest of the European security market, meanwhile, is understandably watching the scenario unfold with great interest and keeping a wary eye on Redmond. Here, by the way, is the money quote from the article linked in the last sentence:
"Steve Munford, CEO of Sophos, a security company in Abingdon, England says, 'As long as Microsoft allows equal access to the operating system, we can differentiate...We have to make sure that we have a broader and more comprehensive strategy than Microsoft.'"
Exactly. That really sums it up for Symantec, Microsoft and everybody else. Access to the Windows kernel, still an issue that’s up in the air, is what really matters here. If Symantec and friends can develop for Windows they way they have been able to in the past, they’ll be able to compete (although, it’s important to note, not necessarily win). But if Microsoft really does shut down development access in Vista, that really will be taking things a step too far and will be a negative development for competitors, partners and the industry as a whole.
You’ve been very good about e-mailing me on this topic, and I appreciate your responses. If you have any more thoughts, fire away at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/28/2006 at 1:19 PM2 comments
Here’s an interesting little tidbit: Apparently somebody from the U.S. embassy in Brussels has been hounding (sorry, lobbying) European Union competition czar Neelie Kroes to take it easy on Microsoft in the wake of the EU’s heavy fines against and
general harassing of the company.
The rumor that the caller was really Steve Ballmer crank calling after quaffing a few pints of Leffe in the Belgian capital is totally unconfirmed -- especially since I just made it up.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/26/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments
So, Symantec, after yammering to the EU about
Microsoft moving into the security space, is trying to play down whatever difficulties it might have in
making its apps work in the forthcoming Vista operating system.
Robin, who has been good enough to write before, says that Symantec has every right to complain about Microsoft:
"Let's say you get mugged by someone who looks a lot like a guy who's mugged several of your friends. They finally get arrested, you testify against them, they get a slap on the wrist and you see them out on the street. They eye you hungrily. They start walking towards you. What do you do? 1) Assume they are over their aberrant behavior and simply out for a stroll? 2) Get ready to accept an overdue apology? 3) Look around to see if there is a cop and check your exits? Most likely you'll choose #3. Why? They've done it before and they might do it again. Microsoft is no different. They have repeatedly engaged in anti-competitive tactics. They've lost several suits brought against them by companies they've mistreated. They are convicted monopolists, a conviction affirmed unanimously on appeal. And they got a slap on the wrist. This isn't about being anti-Microsoft. This is about being anti-mugger. Stop apologizing for Microsoft and demonizing their victims. Companies are right to be concerned about Microsoft's use of its Windows monopoly. They've done it before and they may do it again."
Nick, on the other hand, isn’t so sure:
"If, like Diskeeper, Norton AV had been best of breed, [Symantec] might have hoped for a buyout. Fact of the matter is their product is bloatware that runs poorly (bogs the host machine down), is integrated with software that is or is not wanted (Norton Firewall and Norton Anti-Spam) and isn't 100% effective. F-Prot runs much better for much less money and less hassle. [Symantec], along with McAfee, had the advantage of first-mover. Like Netscape. And they are now about to be consigned to the dustbin. I won't cry for them. Had their product been better, and their pricing much more reasonable, MS would not likely have targeted their niche as a good place to give consumers added value for their Vista upgrade. The sooner we can all dispense with them, the better. Like Netscape. Nobody wants to pay $400 for Vista, $600 for Office 2007 AND $190 for Acrobat, and $70 for NAV."
Meanwhile, on the topic of anti-virus, Dennis offers the discouraging news that Windows Live OneCare wasn’t so great for him, either:
"Despite the fact that the pricing is very attractive, and the feature set is appealing, the lack of user control is unacceptable, and that's why I disengaged from the perpetual beta. Even at this stage, when Live OneCare is on the market as a shipping product, it's got bugs above and beyond the lack of user control. When I uninstalled it, I was invited to give feedback on why I was doing so. I wanted to let Microsoft know what had caused me to reach this point, but before I was able to finish entering text into the Web browser window and send it, the system rebooted on its own and prevented me from telling Microsoft what I thought. Now I guess they'll never know."
I’m always open to your thoughts on competition, security or anything else that’s on your mind. Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/26/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments
The Uncool MySpace. Great, another project that
takes Microsoft away from its moneymaker.
Mike, who writes from Finland and adds the caveat that he’s not a Mac zealot, is tired of Microsoft coming up with ideas for entry into new markets and not following through on them:
"Microsoft would probably not like to hear it but they have a lot to learn from Apple. There's an interesting piece in last week's BusinessWeek (possibly this week -- I get it fast via Zinio) with several pages on Apple's chief designer and how they work together on production with Asian companies who are happy to accept lower margins to work at the technical edge. Compare this with Microsoft's ultra-portable. A good idea but where they raised expectations by pricing it between $500 and $1,000 and where they handed it over to third parties and where the first company to make it brought out a model at $1,200. In other words, whereas Apple has good ideas and follows through, Microsoft has good ideas, throws them to someone else and then moves on to another good idea. Now they're on an iPod beater. What they should be doing is trying to get their ultraportable right. Instead there'll be another failed attempt at an MP3/WMA/etc. player."
Have anything to add about Microsoft stretching itself far and wide? Let me know here or at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/26/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments
They probably don’t
wear tuxedos or drink their martinis
"shaken, not stirred," but it would be really cool if they did. Microsoft and the Russian police have been playing James Bond over the last year or so, working for his majesty’s (in this case, presumably Steve Ballmer’s) secret service and eyeing software pirates in Russia with a
view to a kill. The idea is to (gold)finger pirates, put them out of business and send profits from legitimate software back home to Redmond (and its partners)
from Russia with love.
Software piracy in Russia will have to die another day -- it remains a problem in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. But Microsoft’s efforts have made a difference and aren’t unlike what the company is doing over here to make sure that Windows is for your eyes only -- if you have a legitimate license. Everything considered, the strategy to work with law enforcement and use the legal system to shut down pirates -- or at least scare the living daylights out of them -- seems to be a solid one, both here in the U.S. and in places where piracy is endemic and is a very genuine threat to Microsoft’s and partners’ businesses.
All of this successful sleuthing stands in stark contrast to the wildly unpopular Windows Genuine Advantage program, a supposed anti-piracy measure that’s more keystone cops than James Bond. In a series of mini-bombshells (here, here, and here), ZDNet blogger Ed Bott exposes the litany of problems that WGA is causing for users of legitimate Microsoft applications. WGA, already disliked for its intrusiveness and the mysterious nature of exactly what it was reporting back to Redmond, now officially appears to be a half-baked -- and possibly not even well-intended -- program that is backfiring on Microsoft and angering both partners and users. And yet Redmond presses on with it, apparently unabated. Not a good idea.
Microsoft, for the sake of itself, its partners and the industry as a whole, must fight piracy. But a little more James Bond and a lot less keystone cops would suit both the company and everybody else in its ecosystem. A couple of martinis and a snazzy tux couldn’t hurt, either.
Have any bad experiences with WGA to share? Let me know here or at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/26/2006 at 1:19 PM2 comments
So, a friend from outside tech world calls me at work today as I’m preparing the newsletter. Right as I pick up the phone, I see a link to a story about a
Microsoft-powered coffee maker. I tell her about it, and she says, "Why does Microsoft want to make technology for coffee makers?" Good question.
I went on, to her considerable shock and dismay, to tell her about everything Microsoft is into: embedded operating systems that run gas pumps and slot machines (among other things), uncool iPods, third-place search engines, video-game consoles, washers and dryers -- and a lot of other stuff. The latest effort is a video-sharing service aimed at taking on the wildly popular and ridiculously entertaining YouTube Web franchise. Good luck with that one, Redmond.
It struck me as I babbled on to my friend just how widespread Microsoft is. This, of course, is not a surprise to anybody. Microsoft is a massive organization, and a lot of its -- let’s say "nontraditional" -- technology generates good revenue and makes sense for the company and its partners alike. Plus, innovation is never a bad thing, as long as my dryer doesn’t blue screen my sheets and towels into some sort of laundry oblivion.
But (and you knew this was coming), with partners still waiting for long-delayed new versions of Vista and Office, and with security snafus still a concern, it’s not hard to wonder yet again whether a little more focus on the old Windows bedrock might do Redmond some good these days.
And, with every new foray into a market that somebody else already owns (and that Microsoft can’t just snatch by glomming something into Windows), questions arise as to exactly how far Microsoft can stretch itself and how much sense it makes to wander further and further away from the traditional desktop moneymakers. New streams of revenue are important for any company, but losing focus on core competencies and spending too much money on too many risky propositions can be dangerous at best and harmful to investors, partners and customers at worst. All we’re saying, Microsoft, is look before you leap and don’t forget about the products and partners that got you where you are today.
Which new initiative would you like to see Microsoft drop? Any at all? Or more than one? Let me know here or at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/19/2006 at 1:19 PM5 comments
So, there’s a
patch to patch a patch that patched a patch -- or something like that.
With all of the publicity Microsoft’s security issues get, it’s hard to say how users will greet the company’s entry into the enterprise security market. How can partners sell companies on Microsoft security applications when Redmond’s reputation in that area is, well, less than stellar? One wonders ....
Hey, here’s a coincidence: I just happen to be writing a story on Microsoft’s entry into the security market for RCP (the magazine) right now. If you want to get your thoughts in on this topic, then, send me a message: [email protected]. Oh, and I won’t quote you in the magazine without talking to you and letting you know first. So don’t worry about being blindsided -- just send away. And thanks again for all your feedback.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/14/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments
And the former Microsoft whipping boy’s new competitor is ... Google? Good luck to our
Canadian friends, eh.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/05/2006 at 1:19 PM0 comments
There’s something about anticipation that becomes impossible to shake. It just builds, getting better and worse at the same time, the closer we get to an important or potentially exciting event. It becomes all-consuming, something that’s in the back of our minds all the time and in the front of our minds most of the time. Kids can’t wait for Christmas. Movie buffs can’t wait for the latest film starring their favorite actors. Book hounds can’t wait to pick up the most recent tomes from their favorite authors.
And I can’t wait for football season. All summer, it just sort of brews -- thoughts about my teams’ upcoming games, memories of great and not-so-great moments past, Google (or maybe even MSN) searches to see what former players are up to. Then, when the cool winds of September -- hey, I’m based in New England -- begin to blow, it arrives. Finally. The college season kicks off, and then the NFL retakes its place as America’s premiere sports spectacle. Victory is never guaranteed (especially as far as my Dallas Cowboys are concerned in recent years), but, at least, all seems right with the world when heavily padded men are tossing an oval ball around the gridiron.
And so it is with Windows Vista. After all the delays, all the beta reviews, all the discussion, all the criticism and all the jokes, it’s really coming. Not today, not by the time football season kicks off, but soon, and maybe even by Microsoft’s latest targeted release date. As is always the case with Redmond, nothing is guaranteed -- not dates, not initial quality. And partners know that most wise IT shops will wisely let Vista mature a bit before buying into it. But, last week’s limited release of a pre-Release Candidate 1 of Vista got some very solid reviews, which is good news given some of the rough treatment reviewers gave Beta 2 a few months back.
There are signs, too, that the dates for Vista’s release are starting to come together. For one thing, you can pre-order some editions of Vista -- slated for a Jan. 30 release date -- now. (Thanks to Derek for the link.) Also, thanks to our friends in the Great White North, we have an idea of how much Vista is going to cost (hint: a lot). (We even have our friends, those shy, timid Mac folks, reminding us that Apple’s OS generates more profit per user than Windows .)
All of this, while ripe for commentary on many fronts, is encouraging. These are the first snaps of training camp, the first cool breezes of September blowing away Adobe legal gripes, European Union fines, investor grousing and the long, hot days of summer in Redmond. Prices, release candidates, Amazon.com listings ... Vista is real, and it might actually be available more or less when Microsoft last said it would be. On top of that, it might also actually be pretty darn good right out of the box. It remains to be seen whether Vista will be a Super Bowl contender or an also-ran upon its debut, but at least the season finally appears close to getting under way.
Have any thoughts about Vista pricing? Or timing? Have any experience with the pre-RC1 build? I’m all eyes at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/29/2006 at 1:19 PM2 comments
The long-time partners have expanded their partnership to
target branch offices of big companies -- which, incidentally, is also a big target of Microsoft’s Dynamics ERP suites.
Gartner has some advice as to how IT people should react. Notice, too, how the Gartner guys congratulate themselves for predicting a Microsoft-Cisco battle back in 1997. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure I’d be so excited about a prediction I made taking 10 years to come true. But, since nobody will remember this little newsletter entry 10 years from now, I’ll come out and say that Google will own at least 50 percent of the OS market by 2016. Take that with a grain of salt -- or maybe a shaker. I’ll be back to brag about it if it comes true, though!
Have any predictions for what the tech world will be like 10 years out? Post 'em or send them to me at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/24/2006 at 1:19 PM1 comments