Mix'07: Microsoft markets new strategy

Most Adobe tools are immensely popular among web programmers and designers alike. No wonder. Technologies like the Flash-based application framework Flex let you create amazing graphically rich and intense user-interactive websites that work like a breeze on any computer and that require minimal programming efforts. Seeing some Flex website is sometimes like experiencing web 3.0, and believing that it will come, too.

At the same time, Linux is getting more and more popular among consumers. Dell just announced that it too is offering Ubuntu Linux pc's now. Ubuntu has received rave reviews from many consumer magazines, both online and offline.

Then, there also is the whole ASP model, where your applications are online rather than installed as software on your computer. Think Salesforce.com. Check your online mail (Windows Live, Yahoo!, gmail -or googlemail, depending on where you live-) and feel the power of the application.

So where do all these consumers come from? Who is losing or at least not gaining audiences in these new areas? Sounds like for somebody, this situation must be a BIG opportunity for improvement, of which the consumer can only take profit.

Well, yes and no. Let's ask ourselves which Operating System, Office Software or Browser is used by the overwhelming majority of pc users worldwide.

That is right, you're talking Microsoft, and it is in no bad shape at all. Microsoft reported earnings in the first quarter that topped Wall Street estimates, thanks consumer sales of Windows Vista and Office 2007. To be sure, this article is written on a Mac, another pc at my home runs indeed Ubuntu, and generally I like to perform my job on a Windows pc: so I am not choosing any sides here.

Still, I do think it is good news that MS throws itself in the online competition. Some professional Microsoft products like MS SharePoint offer tremendous online content management and collaboration opportunities for companies and organizations. But in terms of openness to various dynamic programming languages, or as far as MS media-rich interactive Web applications run on different platforms or browsers, MS has yet to keep up with open-source and other commercial successes. At the end of the day however, if you are in marketing, it is the end result, -the impact-, that counts, not the technology behind.

At Mix'07, Microsoft revealed a host of initiatives to respond to these demands. It indicated how it will work with its partners and proceed by reinforcing its 'ecosystem' around it. Working myself at the major European digital communications agency, LBi, -always happy to reintroduce myself-, I can only support the idea that more technology options provide more innovative and better environment for everyone.