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(It’s been too long since my last post (we’ve been *really* busy at Xuropa), but this is too big…)

There has been buzz about a Google OS for a while, but it’s now official - Google is getting into the OS business.

It’s been something that has been begging to be done for years - a fast, light, and secure OS that gets you onto the web “immediately”.  Back in 2001I even batted around the idea (Linux with an Opera browser) at Merinta (R.I.P.)  as a way to turn that company around (not enough gas).  In ‘95 Ellison had the idea of the Network Computer and announced it at Comdex of that year.  This was while I was at National Semiconductor working on x86-based set-top-boxes and the beginnings of what became to be Internet Appliances.  As with everything - the first goes around never make it, especially when they’re this revolutionary.  The first attempts, ideas, and runs at the problem spur the industry, the environment, the infrastructure, and the thinking of the day to lay the ground work for “the one” to make it happen.  All the pieces are in place for this to be a great success.  Exciting times.

I particularly appreciate in the Google blog post the statement that the OS is a “natural extension of” the browser.  The reversal of the exact position Microsoft took in defending its bundling of the browser with Windows when it first released IE to kill Netscape.  Sweet irony.

But to my point about it being bigger that it initially appears.  For example, Michael Arrington’s post on TechCrunch misses the mark.  He states that “The browser is the platform.  The browser is the UI.”  He’s only half right and is really missing the bigger picture.  The correct interpretation of the announcement, IMO, is “The Cloud is the Platform.  The browser is the UI”.  And it’s not just Microsoft that should be worried, but Amazon, all other cloud computing providers, and subsequently telecoms companies.

I expect to see a plethora of cloud-based services and a Chrome-based API to access them to come along with the Chrome OS.  The first obvious service is storage, but in terms of applications the sky’s the limit.  In fact, combining the OS with the browser not only gives Google a competitive position against Microsoft, it significantly strengthens their position against Amazon and other Cloud vendors.  It’s another choke hold on access to services that will be too sweet for developers to pass up.  Before you know, there will be services and applications built upon the Chrome OS/Browser API’s and a whole infrastructure put in place before Microsoft and Amazon can say “Department of Justice”.

I’ve always said that people were spending too much time talking about Microsoft’s monopolistic position and not looking at Google enough.  But just like the advent of other standard platforms (eg. the IBM PC and Windows), this is going to open up tremendous opportunity for industry growth…and mass schizophrenia.

Posted under business, industry

I can very well understand why Microsoft is not jumping on the SaaS bandwagon, but can’t figure out why some other applications don’t.  My only explanation is: They just don’t get it.

Yes - Microsoft has been struggling to deal with SaaS and cloud computing.  Google has been pushing cloud computing, and a whole bunch of companies are now providing their software in a SaaS model.  You can even run TurboTax (Intuit) on a “cloud”.  Microsoft’s struggle happens to be because they would end up alienating their own franchise on Windows and Office.  They’re seeing the trends and have had some offerings through SaaS, but it’s a complex situation for them.  That - I get!

Someone suggested to me that I should be using stamps.com for its convenience.  So I went ahead and signed up on their website, put in my profile, my credit card number, etc.  I was then taken to a window to download their application.  That was the last thing I wanted to do, but since it does offer certain conveniences, I bit the bullet and moved forward.  The next thing I noticed was that an .exe file was being downloaded on my computer.  That’s normally not a problem, but I happen to do most of my business on a Macintosh, and an .exe wouldn’t do anything for me!  I looked all over the website for a Mac OS version of the application but didn’t find one.  To cut the story short, I ended up canceling my account shortly after.  I’m not going to go into how/why I was being charged automatically for months for my membership - that’s a whole different story - though it does go to shed some light on their concept about “user-experience”.

I couldn’t figure out why a platform such as stamps.com which does have a large user-base would not go the SaaS route.  From the software development standpoint, a SaaS implementation would have almost the the same “backend” and perhaps even a slightly simpler “frontend”.  From a business and market reach standpoint, a SaaS implementation would give them far greater access to users, and provides them with a better user-experience.  The only explanation that I could think of was:  Stamps.com just didn’t know they could do it this way!!!

I have seen this situation in multiple examples and it all leads to not-knowing-better (”ignorance” is a stronger word than I would want to use).  Software development teams that are comfortable with desktop applications continue to recommend it to their users.   After all, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem in the world looks like a nail.

Posted under Xuropa, business, industry, marketing