Firenze,
Don't discount COS just yet - I whole-heartedly agree with your first assessment about MSFT's deep pockets and their ability to compete based on their cash flow and consequently their ability to continuously innovate by virtue of their** internal resources** as well as acquisitions.
Thank you for making it fair.. ;)
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On the other hand, Google has been pretty successful in various areas starting from search/advertising where there's virtually no other service provider as effective and successful as Google.
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Agreed, but here is the point all of the Google strategy is based on SEARCH, whereas Search Business is part of Microsoft Online Division and which is dept. of another division, so that much Microsoft care about it internally.
MSFT is looking ways to acquire Yahoo Search, which is most likely it will get hands on - next morning bing will own the 40% of search market - so here goes the Search.
Now the Google Adwords & Adsense - yes it controls more then 60% of online advertisement market and else. But i think people don't know about MSFT RazorFish which handle nearly all of corporate online spending - Google did get some of the corporate customers with the acquisition of DoubleClick but still long way to go. The corporate is where the real money reside !
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GMail leading the way in online email service - if you remember when GMail was launched, many felt that the business model is bound to fail with all the privacy issues surrounding targetted advertising... but today, GMail is one the most popular online email provider.
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Gmail userbase is mostly technical even today after 5 years of its launching.
But here is the twist, MSFT presence in corporate: Exchange & Outlook - i don't see any Forbes 100 or 1000 company which is relying on Google for email.
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Similarly, Google has made quite a headway into the SMB arena with its Google Apps suite allowing businesses to use applications for a small subscription fees.
They are still very far from garnering widespread acceptance from the corporate world, but in my recent consulting engagements I've observed management considering these options.
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The answer is Microsoft Office live & Microsoft Azure - but still i believe Google APP is promising but the history of MSFT shows they catch up very fast - so that's why i am saving my verdict.
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Google's Analytics service is another example of an extremely successful online service which is already proving profitable since its launch.
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Agreed, i am using it from 2 years now.
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As far as the OS market is concerned, Google has a very tricky road ahead of itself, but in my opinion, if any organization can challenge MSFT's position, it's gotta be Google. I won't speculate on whether they're going to be successful or not, but Google's very nicely positioned at this juncture in time. As others have noted, the OS is based on the web computing paradigm, and we've already seen how successful the SAAS model has been over the last few years. I can only see this pattern to continue... hell... even MSFT has started to offer what it is calling Software and Services (not software as a service) because in Gates' own words, this is where the future is. So if other application vendors also follow suit and start offering their software online, then this lightweight OS can prove to be a key market contender.
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Lets see ..what the future brings for us !
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