MICROSOFT is having a rough few weeks. Hard on the heels of an embarrassing
breach of Hotmail, its free Internet-based e-mail system, the company’s biggest
rival Sun Microsystems has announced plans to launch free software over the Net
as a rival to Microsoft’s market-leading Office package.
Within the next few months, Sun plans to launch an “application service
provider” that will allow customers to run wordprocessing packages, spreadsheets
and other programs via a Net connection, rather than having the software
installed on a computer’s hard drive. Microsoft has already countered by
announcing that it is planning a similar service—although the company
won’t comment on when this will start and whether there will be a charge for
using the software.
Microsoft boasts a 93 per cent share of the global software market. In
providing a free service with applications which are compatible with Microsoft’s
Windows operating system, Sun believes it can undermine the giant’s position.
Industry observers suspect Microsoft will respond by offering stripped-down,
Web-hosted versions of its Office software for free.
For more on Sun and Microsoft, see “Gates shut out”
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