14 DAY TRIAL // It took the overwhelming success of Google to nudge the Microsoft juggernaut from its trajectory. One thing that the dormant Microsoft can still go by is its nose. And it can sniff the $10,6 billion of Goolge's revenue generated from web-based advertising. It is a sum that delivered a "wake up call" to Microsoft, according to Ray Ozzie.
"Google's success very clearly caused an inflection point within our industry and within Microsoft in terms of understanding the real power of advertising as an economic engine that can be used to fund software," stated Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect.
However, Microsoft is loyal to its own approach to Internet services. While Google's strategy implies a software as a service approach, the Redmond Company's vision involves a hybrid between software and online services. "In the pure Web model, the trade-offs are fairly substantial," Ozzie added referring to programs such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Apparently, nothing will gear Microsoft from its software and service momentum. Clearly, Google's wake up call failed to drive the point at Microsoft's core. "You have to be online in order to use them. Depending on whose version it is, there are different feature/function trade-offs. But the way I approach it and the way I view the services opportunity related to productivity is really about more than just taking what's on the PC and putting it up on the Web. I think there are high-level scenarios that if you consider you've got software on PCs, services in the cloud and devices, mobile devices, as the power that you can work with, and you try to envision the value of productivity, and what you're trying to offer, you end up with a different result," Ozzie said.