Allthough Steve Ballmer says that Microsoft has no other choice but to embrace the web app revolution, the company intends to do that while keeping both feet firmly on the Windows desktop.
On Thursday, in the meeting with financial analysts, the Microsoft CEO together with his fellow executives revealed details about the company’s plans to offer web-based components for its desktop software applications. This long-term plan would see a major restructuring of the way Microsoft delivers software to its customers, but it is only a half-hearted move away from the desktop that illustrates how much the company has to work in order to catch up to its fully web-minded competitors.
Microsoft is planning to roll out a multi-tiered client-server platform for its Office and consumer applications. Over the next several years it's going to use its data centers and network infrastructure already in place to offer hosted applications on its Windows Live service, as well as continue to offer desktop applications that can connect to this services platform for collaboration and data sharing. The Microsoft execs call it "software plus services," an overly obfuscated term that chief software architect Ray Ozzie attempted to fully explain at yesterday's event.
While a shift to a hybrid "web-enabled desktop" sounds positive, Microsoft is already at least a year behind the curve. This shift from the desktop as the platform to the web as the platform was recognized many months ago by Google, Salesforce and others, and they have already convinced their own dedicated user bases that the future of applications is in the browser. Key elements to the success of these apps can be considered the lack of dependence on a specific operating system and the universal access to data.
Yesterday, Microsoft's president of its platforms and services division Kevin Johnson announced that a downloadable set of applications and components meant to enhance Microsoft Windows Live, the personal information and communication service, will be available later this summer.
2.4 percent is how low Microsoft stock dropped after in the room on Thursday financial analysts had mixed reactions to Redmond’s overall plan for the future.