Microsoft: The Wal-Mart of software
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
At a time of economic uncertainty, Microsoft serves as a Wal-Mart of software, offering high-volume, low-cost products, a Microsoft executive said in an interview.
Duffner also cited online versions of software like Microsoft Office, Sharepoint, and Exchange as potential cost-savers. The company is looking at business models for the online products that might save customers money, such as selling advertising to pay for the services. He stressed the company's epiphany pertaining to open-source software. While Duffner does not see Microsoft offering up bread-and-butter products like Windows or Word to open source, the company nonetheless has forged a host of partnerships in the open source realm with such companies as SugarCRM, Novell, Zend Technologies, and Sun, he said.