By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
October 04, 2005 Sun to help Google build a network to compete with common rival Microsoft
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
October 04, 2005
Google (Profile, Products, Articles) and Sun Microsystems (Profile, Products, Articles) are expected to unveil a collaborative effort Tuesday that will bring StarOffice productivity applications to Google users, according to sources familiar with the companies' plans.
The move is expected to be part of a larger technology initiative in which Sun will help Google build a network to provide Web-based applications that will enable the companies to compete with their common rival, Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles).
Google and Sun are expected to hold a press conference in Mountain View, California, Tuesday morning where Google Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt and Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy will be on hand to unveil a partnership between the search giant and the computer systems vendor.
Company representatives have been extremely tight-lipped about what exactly will be announced, but industry sources have speculated that Google is interested in offering more Web-based applications to compete with Microsoft.
The Redmond, Washington-based software company has made no bones about its aim to unseat Google as the leading search-engine company. Microsoft executives also have said it will begin offering more services rather than packaged software in the next year.
Sun, too, sees Microsoft as one of its chief rivals in the software market, but has been having trouble garnering widespread adoption of its software portfolio, including its StarOffice productivity suite. The company just released a new version of StarOffice that includes features that allow Sun's productivity suite, which is based on the open-source OpenOffice suite, to better interoperate with Microsoft Office.
Sun also believes it has momentum for StarOffice in a recent decision by the state of Massachusetts to move to open office file formats for documents created by the state's government agencies. The state going forward plans to support the newly ratified Open Document Format for Office Applications, or OpenDocument, as the standard for its office documents. Suites that support OpenDocument include OpenOffice, StarOffice, KOffice and IBM (Profile, Products, Articles) Workplace. Microsoft Office does not support the file format.
A pairing of the two companies, then, could give Google the technology it needs to rival Microsoft in providing applications as services, while giving Sun an edge in the applications business as well.
/// Situation: Sun to help Google build a network to compete with common rival Microsoft
Seriously, how many companies really innovate.
...
Most ppl just copy what their competitor does and add a small twist to it. ... And hope that they can out-execute the competition in the marketplace.
MS, IBM and SBC are the best at it where they use their mass, the law and their inside connections to screw the competition up.
When was the last time MS innovate anything?
fyi- 50%+ of all "hi-tech" patents are issued to IBM per year.
Too bad IBM can't do a damm thing w/ most of their patents. MS only gets 5%.
With their mass and network, MS is a quick follower. The master of reverse engineering.
Too bad it's not working f/ them in Asia and Europe.
Q: Do anyone know the reason why that is occurring?
Q: What is the best strategic counter for companies who are competing against
"Fast Follower" companies like MS?
Of course, the high tech news media has no solution for that solution. Their focus is to record history and claimed that they inspire a change toward the history.
What I admire about MS, IBM and SBC is that it designs "the competitive use of the law"scheme
in their grand scheme of things whenever they develop a product or a service.
When developing an innovative product, understand the following points:
* know where one stands in the value chain,
* know how much of the innovation should be shown to the public for each moment;
* know how to use the law as an competitive factor.
The book that I'm reading is:
Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy (Hardcover)
Recommended by a Ivy Leaguer. It's being used by Columbia Business School and possible HBS.
Their approach's quite simple for strategic marketing development.
Bottom line: Only a fool's willing to release a full innovative product and allow the marketplace to determine its fate w.o. ever considering the competitive forces and its cyclic strength
All food for thought. ...
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