Microsoft Zune

Toshiba will build the Zune player for Microsoft. As it turns out Toshiba's FCC filing for an HDD portable audio player finally let the secret out. Zune has a WiFi capabilities that require FCC approval. The user manual for Zune gives a glimpse of the features of the player, admittedly the wirelessLAN feature is the most exciting. In an earlier blog I had requested WiFi connection between Windows Media Player and Zune so to play songs directly from playlists on laptops. May be someone at Microsoft read this blog :). The WiFi capability definitely helps differentiate Zune. Users will be able to connect each others Zune players and transfer and/or listen to songs, or at the very least play streaming music (so as to prevent DRM violations).

Differentiation will have to be the trump card if Zune is to succeed against the Ipod. Microsoft can certainly add some of its Windows CE applications to Zune and turn it to something more than an portable audio music player. I am not sure this effort is going to bear high dividends because a number of PDAs in the market already support MP3. So what's the killer application that can set Zune apart from the crowd? My recommendation is that Zune needs to have an embedded MSN Live Messenger and my reasons are as follows:

1. Zune will come with headphones and adding a microphone shouldn't be very difficult. It already has WiFi capability. Why shouldn't a user be able to see his/her friends online through MSN Live Messenger? VOIP is the rage these day. Whenever a user is connected to the internet he/she should be able to make and receive calls to friends. Besides differentiating Zune such a feature will also help grow the MSN Live Messenger user base .
2. Application for application Apple can match anything Microsoft adds to the Zune (they too make an OS ;)). An existing messenger userbase is something Apple cant really match, it may allow other vendors such as AOL or Yahoo to add their messengers to Ipod, but by then Microsoft will have the first mover advantage.

I am looking forward to the next set of Zune features that leak out. Be sure to check this blog for updated comments.

PS: In case someone in Redmond is actually reading this blog (though I highly doubt it), I am a graduate student at CMU looking for a job.

Writely, Google Spreadsheets, et al

Writely is up again after integration with Google. I am impressed with the interface, it is definitely convenient to work with. To add to that the web word processor supports more than just the MS .doc format, it can currently handle RTF, ODT, and SXW file formats. To test Writely I threw one of my term papers at it and I must admit it did a great job of handling the document. My paper had images, hyperlinks, TOC, formatting, different fonts, etc, so basically the works. Except for one image that had moved slightly everything else was as is! The fonts and font sizes were exactly the same as I had used in MS Word. Even the hyperlinks (external, and within the document) were working flawlessly. Go ahead and try out Writely.

While I was at it I also had a look at Google Spreadsheets which is an in-house online spreadsheet tool from Google. I add in-house because Writely was purchased by Google, I am not sure about the original creators of Writely. Google Spreadsheets on the other hand is a Google baby, to the best of my knowledge. The tool is evolving and is still with Google Labs, I will hold my comments till it to moves to beta testing. I must conclude by admitting that early on I am impressed by at least the number of formulae that Google Spreadsheet already supports. I think the number is well over a hundred!

Hmmm...So what does this mean for MS? Is this the end of the road for desktop software? Is MS Office obsolete? Is this the end of the cycle, after all we started with dumb terminals, is that where we are finally headed? No way. No matter how much people distrust their hard drives we are not at a point where hard drives are going to be dumped en masse. While hard drives crash, fail, and even break, they are for real! Physically real. If I am truly paranoid, all I have to do is unscrew my hard drive and hide it under my mattress or maybe, just maybe, bury it in the garden. But who is to say anything about data stored at some unknown server in an undisclosed location?

So why is Google hell bent on creating online web based productivity tools?
My two cents:

1. They are after the ad revenues. Its not the tool that is important, not even the contents of the documents. Let me take that back, the content matter but only for creating appropriate ads. Its the ad revenues that can be generated when people start preparing and updating documents on Writely or Google Spreadsheets. Sounds familiar? Gmail? Next time you have a look at either of the two tools (the browser doesn't matter) try to imagine Google Sponsored links in the extreme right hand side covering about 20% of the screen. That's where the money will come from! Here is a picture of what an ad supported spreadsheet might look like (all credits go to me and MS Paint).
   
2. There is one more potential revenue stream. From enterprises wishing to secure email attachments. As the global economy expands further and companies setup distant offices email has become critical communication tool. Confidential documents are being sent through email for approval, updates, etc. Organizations are going to great lengths to secure the data exchange, using VPN, encryption, etc. But the weakest link in the entire exchange is probably the desktop tool used to view the documents. A document that was secure on a company software suddenly becomes vulnerable after its been sent over email and has been saved on a desktop. Where do webtools come into the picture? Imagine a corporate email that doesn't have the MS Word attachment but a link to a secure Writely server that hosts the document. You can only view and update the document after authenticating to the server. I believe that if Google can further polish its web based tools companies interested in information security will definitely be interested. A creative licensing policy can help secure long term revenues.
   

What about MS Powerpoint?
Is the MS Powerpoint hegemony intact? Yes, for the time being. The problem with a presentation tool is that...well you need a presentation tool. I am yet to hear of any web based presentation tools . Do let me know if you come across any.
On the other hand, if Google comes up with Google Presentation (this name is fictional and wholly my creation, but they are free to use it) and some ingenious folks at Mozilla can come up with a plug-in for Firefox that enables Google Presentation html documents to viewed as a slide show then things are going to get very, very interesting. A mutually beneficial deal between Mozilla and Google could potentially upset the hitherto unchallenged MS Powepoint monopoly.