Microsoft Comes Out Swinging for 2007, Thursday November 30th

Many thanks to OC chat regular and listener, Earl, for this submission:

To those of you who are nay saying Vista’s saleability, its value, its security or its general appeal to the marketplace I say you just aren’t looking in the right place. This is not about Vista. It’s about Microsoft’s moneymaking strategy for the future. Microsoft is not just coming out with seven versions of Vista for the year 2007. It’s also coming out with eight versions of Office 2007. But if you think that’s all then you haven’t seen half of it. The new version of Windows Server currently called Longhorn Server is coming out in 2007. And what else? What is the killer app of the Internet? Email. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is to be released on Thursday too. This is a four punch combination that will impact the business community for years to come. And - as Microsoft well knows – the business world’s model of computing is followed by people taking it home. In other words, as the impact of Exchange 2007/Outlook/Office 2007/Office Live/Vista and the new Sharepoint /WebServer/Server2007 combo hits the biz community in the next few months it will either make it or break it for Microsoft. And what do you think Microsoft is planning on? Certainly they are not planning on the success of Vista alone to save their tush. Since 1997 Microsoft has depended on Exchange/Windows Server/Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP) and MS Office to be the winner in the corporate marketplace.



“This is no small matter. Together, Sharepoint, the Exchange e-mail offering and Office software rang up $14.5 billion of Redmond's $44.3 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. That exceeded Windows sales of $13.2 billion.

These segments are so profitable — that combined $27.7 billion from business software and Windows sales produced $19.9 billion in operating income — that they all but float the company, letting Microsoft's entertainment and online divisions lose money.”



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061124/ap_on_bi_ge/microsoft_new_vistas



November 30th is Microsoft’s first release date to the business world of Vista – Office 2007 – Exchange 2007. It’s not going to impact the world immediately. But MS software rarely does. The entire strategy for the future (Office, Vista, Server, Exchange 2007 and Sharepoint/Webserver) will make it or break it for the 800 pound gorilla. The rest of us just follow.



Earl



http://www.itjungle.com/two/two110806-story01.html