Deja Vu All Over Again at Microsoft

By Mark Evans
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Eleven years ago, Microsoft held an “Internet Strategy Day” in Redmond to discuss how it was about to finally get serious about the Internet after choosing to pretty much ignore it despite the Internet’s move into the mainstream and the emergence of Netscape. In some respects, Microsoft has lost some of its strategic focus on the Internet in recent years. While MSN is a major online player and MSN messenger is one of the top instant messenging services, Microsoft’s core software products - i.e. Office - have mostly stayed offline even as software as a Web-based service becomes more of a real business. All you have to do is look at NetSuite and Salesforce.com for signs of what’s on the horizon. Tomorrow, Bill Gates and his chief technology officer, Ray Ozzie, will hold a press conference in San Franciso (the location is telling, isn’t it?) to talk about how Microsoft is going to more jiggy about the Web. In particular, they will likely offer some strategic direction on how Office will be Web-enable so corporations can run it off a Web server. Also look for MSN Messenger to become better integrated into other Microsoft applications. It should be interesting to see what kind of vision/action is in the works.

We Say: Can Microsoft really change it stripes? When I hear about Microsoft becoming serious about a new market, I wonder whether it makes more sense for it to be split apart so that each business can become super-focused. I’m not talking about a re-org but, rather, the creating of independent companies (i.e. Windows, Office, Internet, TV/Entertainment, Xbox). For more thoughts, click here.

Alice Adds: Can a Perl Harbor/Sleeping Giant Memo be far behind?! Say it isn’t so.