Wish Google and Sun Microsystems well - competition is healthy esp for the consumers. If they fail, "better luck tomorrow".
Bottom line: The most MS loses is 5% of the mktplc. .. At the end MS prevails. ... Too much of a lead. ..
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google5oct05,0,486338.story?track=tottext
Google, Sun Take Aim at Microsoft
Offering few details, the new partners say they'll promote a free program that duplicates their rival's Office suite.
By Chris Gaither
Times Staff Writer
October 5, 2005
Google Office?
Google Inc. on Tuesday hinted that it might add free
word processing and spreadsheets to its rapidly
growing lineup of services, challenging Microsoft
Corp. in setting the agenda for the next wave of
technological innovation.
At an often confusing Silicon Valley news conference,
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt touted a
wide-ranging deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. to work
together and promote some of each other's products —
including the Sun-backed OpenOffice, a free program
that duplicates the core features of Microsoft's
Office package of productivity programs.
Pressed repeatedly to explain how Google might exploit
OpenOffice, Schmidt and Sun CEO Scott McNealy coyly
refused to discuss specifics. But Schmidt made it
clear that he envisioned a computing environment in
which applications live on the Web, independent of
Windows or any other operating system.
The Sun deal is "a tip-of-the-iceberg kind of thing,"
said John R. Rymer, an analyst with Forrester
Research. "If Google gets involved and could put real
resources behind it, then you might have something, a
real alternative to Microsoft Office. Wouldn't that be
interesting?"
Google has built a broad catalog of free,
advertising-supported services that work on almost any
computer with an Internet connection. Google already
offers online services such as e-mail and mapping, and
the company is working on a calendar program that it
plans to release soon, according to a person who has
seen the program.
Schmidt's vision is not new, but Google may be the
first company with the financial heft, technological
acumen and loyal users to potentially pull it off.
Microsoft views Google's rise as a threat to its long
reign over the Digital Age, which has been cemented by
the dominance of the Windows operating system and
Office.
So-called open source software such as OpenOffice, the
Firefox Web browser and the Linux operating system is
free and maintained by thousands of users. The rise of
such software poses a direct challenge to Microsoft.
The company's top moneymakers are the two units that
produce Windows and Office.
Many analysts, though, were left baffled Tuesday
because Google and Sun were so vague. Microsoft
dismissed the announcement.
"What's there to say?" a Microsoft spokeswoman asked.
"There's not much of an impact for us."
The partnership between Google and Sun will begin
modestly. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google agreed to
buy more Sun computing equipment, and Santa Clara,
Calif.-based Sun vowed to buy ads that appear beside
Google's search-engine results.
Sun also will make Google's toolbar program, which
performs searches and other functions at the top of
the Web browser, available for download when computer
users download Sun's Java program, which powers many
Web applications. Sun says Java is downloaded 20
million times a month.
Google also said vaguely in a news release that it
would "explore opportunities to promote and enhance"
OpenOffice.
The lack of specifics caused several analysts to quip
that the news conference appeared to be little more
than a favor from Schmidt, a former Sun executive, to
McNealy, his former boss.
"What if two of the industry's biggest luminaries
decided to hold a press conference and everybody came,
but there was no news?" Yankee Group analyst Laura
DiDio said. "This announcement at this point lacks
substance, context and specifics."
The partnership is "merely propaganda" until some
products emerge, said Rob Helm, an analyst with
research firm Directions on Microsoft. Creating
Web-based programs that function without delays and
other hiccups, especially programs as big as
productivity applications, is extremely tricky, he
said.
"But Google knows how to do it as well as anyone," he
said.
There are strategic reasons for the tie-up. Sun has
been a longtime rival and critic of Microsoft, and it
gets a powerful ally in Google.
"The motivation behind the Sun-Google alliance is
obvious: In unity there is strength," DiDio said.
For its part, Google is locked in an increasingly
bruising fight with Microsoft. Steve Ballmer and Bill
Gates, Microsoft's top executives, have vowed to beat
Google in the search game with a homegrown search
engine.
And Google is bringing the fight to Microsoft's home
turf by launching programs such as its desktop search
and Sidebar programs, which allow computer users to
skip some key functions of the Windows operating
system in retrieving personal data and Web
information.
Google also is looking for ways to diversify its
business, which is almost entirely reliant on ads
delivered with search-engine results. The nearly $11
billion in revenue that Microsoft made from office
productivity tools during its last fiscal year looks
tempting, said Citigroup Investment Research analyst
Mark Mahaney.
"Although [the market] is currently dominated by
Microsoft, it does offer a sizable opportunity for
Google," he wrote in a research report.
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