The end of software as we know it
In effect, that’s what Bill Gates says in a memo leaked to the Associated Press describing what’s happened because of Internet-based software and services, as pioneered by Google and Yahoo.
“The next sea change is upon us,” Gates wrote to executives.
The Gates memo tells Microsoft execs to shift toward offering more free, advertising-supported online offerings and more sophisticated, Internet-based methods of delivering products.
November 9th, 2005 at 9:21 am
We don’t watch tv news, nor do we subscribe to a local newspaper. In both cases, they don’t talk about things that interest us.
Instead we read books and use the web to find info we need. We really aren’t all that interested in who is dating whom in Hollywood or in reading about quirky crimes committed a thousand miles away from where we live.
In my opinion the mainstream media is quickly becoming irrelevant.
November 9th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
I may be wrong, but I don’t see a huge market for online software services. Americans are a people who like to own things in the material sense. I would submit that they would rather pay for something that they can actually touch, and feel as if they own a product, as opposed to buying space on someone else’s computer, which is essentially what these web-based services are. I think it gives them more of a sense of control and real ownership. When I get the latest version of Office, or Photoshop, or whatever, I want the disc in my hand, not only because I paid for the product, but because I can use it again, if my hard drive goes south, or I buy a new computer. The web is the future for most communications, especially news retrieval, forums, blogs, general communications, but I, for one, will be extremely reluctant to purchase space on somebody’s servers for me to store my personal data, spreadsheets, documents, photos, etc. The discs that I’ve purchased take up very little space, and I own them.
About three years ago, when I worked for Apple, CompUSA was going to put kiosks in their stores, where you could swipe your credit card, and download the latest versions of many programs, without the packaging that you would normally get on the shelf. The plan never made it to fruition, and I suspect that one of the main reasons is because we feel as if we’re getting less without the pretty packaging. We are a purchase driven society, and many companies increase their sales on products simply by repackaging them in more eye-catching designs, without any change in the product itself.
The control issue also comes into play when we want to use something right now, not wanting to wait because somebody’s server is not responding, or because traffic is too heavy and the response is too slow for us. That’s one of the reasons mass transit has never caught on. The smartest thing GM ever did, from a marketing standpoint, was to buy out the trolley car systems and tear the tracks out, so everybody would buy their cars, which was huge, in that it helped turn us into the consumers we’ve become.
I just don’t see this becoming big.
November 9th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
Gates is crazy… There are TONS of software that wouldn’t even have the smallest chance of running on the web — 3D games, video editing, photoshop, etc. Even Microsoft Word and complicated Excel spreadsheet will crawl to a snails pace if ran under the web…
And I agree… Security is a BIG issue… I’m not going to post my financial spreadsheet on someone else’s server… As it is, MS security stinks… I’m not about to trust my sensitive data to Gate’s vision anytime soon.
November 17th, 2005 at 9:16 am
I would agree with some of your points, but i dont think that running Word “over the Internet”, is exactly the point. It is more specifically running the services over “Internet Technologies”. Most corporations internal networks are now pure IP, and have much larger and more reliable networks. Your assertion that the speed of the internet is not reliable or sufficient doesnt hold up. Anyhow if the IT industry has taught us anything it is that applying limits to the future of IT, based on todays limitations is utterly futile. (even Bill Gates thought that 640K would be enought RAM for any PC). So to say that some application would “crawl” on the internet in the future would in my view be almost 100% incorrect.
God Bless Moores Law!