Microsoft v/s Google – the battle continues

Then Google announced the launch of its operating system, the Google Chrome OS. The launch is scheduled for H2 2010 and is expected to create a cult status among the open source community. Google OS already exists in its Android phone, which was in turn produced to compete with Apple’s revolutionary product, iPhone. Google Chrome OS would be an OS in the already choc a bloc world of OS. Apple, Microsoft, UNIX, Linux, open source OS, and now Google, the list seems endless. Google is tying up with Acer to bundle its OS and manufacture its brand of netbooks.

Microsoft preferred to maintain a wait and watch policy on the wake of Google’s announcement. Though not a stranger to stiff market competition, Microsoft was waiting for a judicious moment to announce its latest product line. Microsoft is prone to the usual anti trust litigations and other controversies, and going by their past history, the entire tech community waited in bated breath for a new launch.

And Microsoft did just that. They announced the launch of Microsoft 7, their latest OS to hit the market in a month’s time. It’s a much improved version of Microsoft Vista Pro and will contain a host of new features. Early reviews say the OS boots quickly and sleep fast, and avoid much of the confusing interface decisions that have made many dislike Vista, the successor to Windows XP. Microsoft also dominates in the business world, where nearly every medium to large company standardizes around Microsoft Office. Microsoft is also at work on version 6 of its operating system for handheld devices, which it first launched in 2000.

Microsoft also announced the launch of MS Office 2010, with sleek design and an effective document management system. Also users would be given a preview of the cut-copy-paste feature. Taking a cue from Google Apps, and taking cloud computing to a whole new level, Microsoft is also implementing deploying its office products on its cloud or over the internet. Users can work with office apps online, and can create documents, presentations; spreadsheets etc. and store them on the Microsoft servers. One can eliminate considerable IT costs in deployment and maintenance. Microsoft’s cloud product for the enterprise space, Microsoft Azure is already open for reviews and will be a paid service, once launched.

Google and Microsoft are both taking computing to a whole new level and it is the users who would be spoilt for choice. Microsoft had largely grown complacent until Google came along to shake up categories. Gmail’s massive online storage capability and fancy programming made Microsoft hustle to upgrade its popular, though not user-friendly, web e-mail service. Google Maps led to Microsoft’s Live Maps, which now bests Google’s efforts in some ways.

Google has been winning the fight for the last few years, showing that it is still nimbler than the software giant from the Northwest. But the pendulum may be slowing, or even poised to swing the other way. With the innovations in Bing and the promise that Microsoft’s online Office offerings will be free and more fully featured than the Google equivalent, Microsoft is taking on Google where it matters for users: on the field of innovation.

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