Open document formats push by states and Microsoft

There is a large amount of money in software contracts by American states. Hence if a state makes a push for moving onto an independent document format, it has a major impact on Microsoft, since Office makes around 1/3rd of Microsoft's revenue, making around $14 billion.
There have been attempts by some American states to try and push through legislative bills to mandate the use of an open document format (ODF), something that Microsoft's Office did not have. Such a measure could have a domino effect on other states also trying out similar efforts, and hence Microsoft's intense lobbying of legislators paid off. The states of Florida, Texas, California, Oregon, and Connecticut had these bills defeated and never became law. Chalk one up for Microsoft. Remained Massachusetts.
To get around the obstacle of not having an Open document format, Microsoft proposed a new format called 'Open XML' and promised to allow any company to make software that will produce documents in the Open XML format. In addition, the new format was also validated by an open standards body called ECMA International.
These gambits seem to have worked. When Massachusetts finally decided on this topic, the decision was 'Okay, fine'. This means that Microsoft Office is still on the list of softwares that can be bought by the state of Massachusetts, handing Microsoft a great victory and crushing the hopes of some open source competitors such as Open Office. Now that state agencies can continue to use MS office, there is much less of an incentive to switch to open source software.

Bethann Pepoli, Massachusetts' acting chief information officer, said her office is seeking public comment through July 20 on the plan to approve the Microsoft format. But Pepoli already seems convinced. "It does meet our criteria for an open standard," she said.
Andrew Updegrove, a Boston lawyer who tracks the open document dispute, said that Microsoft's embrace of its Open XML provides more choices to consumers, because rival software companies can make compatible products. "If you look at it from the standpoint of Microsoft customers, it's a good thing," Updegrove said. But he warned that if Microsoft's Open XML becomes the dominant format, driving out ODF, Microsoft could try to modify the standard in ways that would put competing software products at a permanent disadvantage.

And that last point is the major one. Microsoft has not been known for its usage of business ethics and has been known to use all sort of tactics to get victory. The hope remains that things will change this time.

Robert Scoble strikes back at Microsoft

At one time Robert Scoble was employed with Microsoft as a technology evangelist, and his blogging had made the company seem less cold, and more willing to communicate. He would write about Microsoft and its policies when he was employed there, and this somehow softened the overall impression of the company.
But he seems to have been provoked by some comments made by Steve Ballmer at a global meeting. The Microsoft head honcho made comments about how eventually Microsoft would win the search battle, and at another meeting, he had talked about how essentially Google was a single horse company with search, and nothing else was significant in any way.
But typically such words need to be backed up by actions, and not only words; and Microsoft Live has not been seen to be making the impact that it should, and Google with its released Google Apps packaging has started sniping at the MS office money making machine. This is a time for Microsoft to become more nimble, and its recent launches have not exactly set the market on fire. Xbox 360 was awaited, but the Sony Play Station and Nintendo Wii seem to be in the game for the long haul. Zune has not set anything on fire, and with Vista having been released, there is no other buzz word that could set the market buzzing.
Read more about what Scoble said.

Google apps for $50

Google, in the first direct assault on the money making machine of Microsoft (its Office line of products), has launched a line of key business applications for money. Titled the 'Google Apps Premier Edition', it provides some key office productivity tools such as a Word processor, a spreadsheet application, Google Talk (messaging), Calendar, Gmail. These are wrapped in a promise of support with IT management tools, technical support, and service level agreements for uptime, costing a total of $50.
In addition, it will offer a platform for integrating with third parties such that it can become integrated with a client's other business applications. This is a big step ahead in the area of hosted applications or Software as a service. The service will provide 10GB of storage per user, 24X7 support for critical issues, and 99.9% service uptime.
This will be very advantageous for those customers who are currently struggling with the expenses of Microsoft office, and this provides a very low cost alternative. In addition, with more integration with other business applications such as ERP, sales, etc., companies will start to see this as a feasible alternative. Plus, features such as being able to easily share documents across users (a big feature of the word processor and spreadsheet application) can be a major advantage.
However, there are some critical issues that need to be overcome. This is a hosted solution, and will be unavailable if connectivity is unavailable. In addition, office applications by Microsoft are seen so firmly as desktop products that it will require a major shift in thinking to see them as hosted applications. And Microsoft is not going to be staying still, they will also take steps to try to overcome this challenge from Google.