By Tim Ferguson, 8 July 2009 15:22
COMMENT
in 2010 with the arrival of Office 14.
Quocirca analyst Bob Tarzey agrees that one of the biggest shifts for Microsoft in recent years is the adoption of software as a service. But he added this may not have been something that Gates would have held back on anyway as it's a significant industry trend that Microsoft needed to address.
Ovum's Mitchell, on the other hand, sees Microsoft's greater acknowledgment of the web as proof of Ray Ozzie's influence.
He said: "Ozzie has been instrumental in driving the company into the software plus services world, a trend that will accelerate in the next two years."
More mature and thorough
Microsoft's product strategy is certainly exhibiting more grown-up characteristics under Ozzie.
The company, according to Mitchell, is sporting a "more mature attitude" towards interoperability with products such as Open XML, ODF translators and support for the Daisy consortium, which is aimed at promoting talking documents for the visually impaired.
Microsoft is showing more care in managing its product portfolio. It halted investment in products that appear to be in terminal decline - such as Microsoft Money or security product OneCare, which is being replaced by Microsoft Security Essentials.
"In the past I don't think that Microsoft was quite as thorough in the management of its portfolio, keeping investments going in some products, even when it was clear that they were not 'economic over-achievers'," Mitchell said.
New tune for Windows
A review of Microsoft's past year would not be complete without a mention of its new desktop operating system, Windows 7, the successor of the poorly received Windows Vista
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