Microsoft.Net shrouded in mystery
The master plan behind the Windows XP experiment is something called Microsoft.Net--a massively complicated strategy that continues to baffle many potential customers.
Strategy: Blueprint shrouded in mystery
By Mike Ricciuti Little did he know that he had contributed to a marketing revolution that would reinvent the world's largest software company around a colossal technology campaign known as Microsoft.Net. Suddenly, the car project became a showcase for the burgeoning Web services initiative, with Osbourne as its poster child. "Some writers ask me, 'So, what is .Net?' And I say, 'Hey, you're talking to the wrong guy,'" said the group manager of advanced technology at Dollar, still amazed at all the attention. "My interest is in looking for tools that will add value to me and make it easier for me to develop."
With the release of Windows XP--the first major public step in its .Net initiative--the software leader is in the excruciatingly delicate position of pushing to market a crucial product featuring an integration plan that is being challenged as anti-competitive in the company's landmark federal case. Some say the sheer scope of the .Net campaign will dwarf the concerns of previous legal challenges involving browsers and operating systems. Microsoft.Net is a mammoth effort that begins with Windows XP and branches out to nearly all of Microsoft's products, services, Web sites and development efforts. It is an umbrella concept for how new software should be designed; a set of products for building that software; and an initial set of hosted services, called .Net My Services. Through that controversial strategy, Microsoft plans to offer a broad array of services, including online calendaring, contact-list management, document and image storage, credit card information, and personal identification data--all accessible from any conceivable digital device, anywhere on the planet. "This whole thing is driven by the fact that Microsoft has hundreds of millions of Windows users out there, but Microsoft doesn't have a direct monthly billing relationship with those users," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "That's their consumer strategy, in a nutshell." Industry analysts and Microsoft customers are quick to point out that while .Net is surrounded by a thick layer of vapor, it is far more than the usual marketing hype. The foundation of the plan--essentially software integration using Extensible Markup Language (XML), a Web standard by which data is exchanged online--is based on real technology that works and that will become common among large companies' information-technology departments and, by extension, in consumers' daily lives.
.Net includes links to Microsoft's online properties, such as MSN and bCentral, a small-business-focused Web site, and new tools and software that business customers can buy to create their own Web services. Ultimately, the plan will encompass Microsoft's all-important transition from dependence on one-time sales of software and upgrades to a more stable source of revenue based on recurring subscription fees--the central goal of .Net My Services, which is still in development and slated for introduction next year. "The real growth potential here for Microsoft is .Net My Services. There is more risk there, but with great risk comes great reward," said Gary Hein, an analyst with Burton Group who has spent the better part of this year studying .Net. "By weaving (.Net My Services) into Windows XP and the Microsoft-held Internet properties, you are building a subscriber base. That's the first step...It's a chicken-and-egg problem. No (partners) are going to sign up for these services unless there are users, and no users are going to sign up unless there is content." Christopher Payne--a Microsoft vice president who three years ago defected to Web retailer Amazon.com but has come back to help run .Net marketing--played down such antitrust concerns, saying the initiative is important to the development of the Internet, as well as to his company. ".Net is clearly a huge, huge initiative for the company, along with Windows and Office. It presents a ton of opportunity to improve the way the Web operates," Payne said. "We think we have a compelling vision on how the industry can move forward." Outside the Microsoft rank and file, however, that vision quickly becomes blurred. Customers say the confusion surrounding .Net has been rampant in its early stages. "It is not easy to get your hands around," said Bill Evjen, a Web developer and founder of the St. Louis .Net User Group, a 500-member organization that's among the first of its kind. ".Net will be the most difficult for people to grasp because it is so big." Others say confusion has arisen because .Net encompasses so many businesses and technologies. ".Net is not as mysterious as some people think it is. It's sort of like the story of the elephant and the blind man," said Will Zachmann, an analyst with Meta Group. "It's a conglomeration of lots of things that means different things to different people." Payne conceded that Microsoft probably contributed to the ambiguity by introducing the concept while sidestepping the more concrete aspects of product delivery to customers, analysts and the press. "The consumer obviously doesn't understand all aspects of .Net. Clearly, we have work to do," he said. A raft of rivals old and new Microsoft already controls virtually all other segments of the personal computer software industry. The company owns more than 90 percent of the PC desktop operating system market, more than 90 percent of the PC business applications market, and more than 85 percent of the Web browser market, according to analyst estimates. To drum up support for .Net, Microsoft has taken a textbook approach to spreading its gospel by starting with its most loyal constituency: software developers, such as Dollar's Osbourne. Chairman Bill Gates told CNET News.com earlier this year that building demand for new products by seeding developer interest "is the Microsoft strategy. We have bet our future on that." Industry analysts agree that developers are key to .Net's chances of success. "If Microsoft is successful in emulating the model they have followed in the past of getting developers out there using their tools to develop these services, they are well positioned. It's a proven answer that has worked for them many, many times in the past," Hein said. He added that Microsoft has "a very strong developer network. Probably the best." What makes at least part of Microsoft's development task easier is that some of the technologies that make up .Net have been around for years. They have been recombined with new programming methods and concepts under the .Net and Web services plans. "This is revolutionary for Microsoft. I have watched a lot of Microsoft products come and go over the years, and this is the biggest jump in a generation," said Evjen, whose work with the St. Louis .Net User Group has spawned more than 100 such organizations worldwide. As in the past, Microsoft may not have the best development tools, but they are the easiest to use. Many developers prefer Java tools, which they say are more difficult to use but also more flexible. "Microsoft has the better tools today for building simple Web services," said Randy Heffner, an analyst with Giga Information Group. Industry veterans who have witnessed Microsoft's methods of operation over the years say the .Net strategy will follow a familiar pattern, regardless of any early confusion it may encounter. Meta Group's Zachmann recalls how the company entered the word-processing arena from an almost laughable underdog position in the early 1980s--when Corel's WordPerfect had roughly 80 percent of the business--and then methodically introduced version after version of Microsoft Word until it eventually dominated the market. "Microsoft comes out with the first one, and you say that's interesting, pat them on the head, and send them back to Redmond. They come out with the next one, and you say, well, that's a big improvement, but I can't say that I would ever use that one myself. But they just kept at it and each time they do it, it gets a little better," Zachmann said. "They improve it; they pay attention. I see the same thing happening here with .Net." |
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