My Thoughts on Microsoft Live

Microsoft announced last Tuesday their plans for Windows Live and Office Live, you can read about it here. I sometimes like to give Microsoft a hard time, but I really don’t have anything against them. In fact, I think they are an excellent company. Anyone who doubts their ability to take over any market is forgetting what history has taught us.

Let’s take a look at some of the companies they have conquered in the past:
* Netscape (browser)
* Apple (Operating System)
* Borland (C++ Compiler)
* IBM (Operating System)
* Lotus (Spreadsheet)
* WordPerfect (Word Processor)

I think jumping into online services is a great idea for Microsoft. I think they need to do two things in order to really succeed at this strategy:

1. Integrate their services tightly with their applications
2. Develop API’s so that developers can build applications on top of these services

It sounds like they are going to do both, but I think #2 is especially important. If they provide access to a large web service API that would be a powerful move. It opens the door to a lot of possibilities for the development community out there and I think that’s important for wide-spread adoption. For those people who think they are getting into the web service game a little too late, think again. Being the first to do something has never been a part Microsoft’s strategy and I don’t think they will let their late arrival bother them this time around either.

How will this affect companies like Webmail.us? It's a good question but I don't think it will have much of an impact on what we do. Our company has been tremendously successful because we provide superior service and support, we continuously innovate our product, and we are focused on one thing - email. Our customers love us for our attention to detail, quick response times, and our passion.

If anything, I think the move by Microsoft into the web services space justifies our business model. We have known for a long time that offering software as a service makes complete sense and it's great to see that Microsoft is finally recognizing that fact too.