The deal, which will enable Microsoft to forge ahead with its Live Book Search portal, indicates Microsoft's commitment to its move towards developing online and on-demand services and away from its traditional revenue drivers - the sale and licensing of software.Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Deal takes Microsoft further into Google territory
This is pretty interesting because it sort of hints at something I've wondered about myself a few times. Most newspapers have turned the loss of doorstep paper subscriber revenue into the gain of online advertising revenue by offering the papers online for free. I wonder if perhaps some software manufacturers will turn their loss in revenue due to increasing software piracy into a gain in revenue by offering their software packages for free in an online Web 2.0 environment in which advertising revenues can be unlimited. Microsoft is certainly a great candidate for such a shift, being as they already have one of the most-used online communities. Of course, they'd have to step up their game some, as Google continues to take more of the web based mail market share.
Personally I'd like to see Apple get into the social networking, Web 2.0 game. We'd probably see some pretty incredible innovations from them. .Mac is a pretty incredible online offering from them already, but will never capture a significant chunk of the Web 2.0 community by asking members to pay.
Technorati Tags: microsoft, google, software, apple, .mac
No comments:
Post a Comment