Into the crystal ball….
Google and Microsoft are facing off for your consumer….$s? Nope. Not your cash but your cache. The time spent looking at web pages includes the barrage of embedded advertising you may or may not be aware of. Time spent on web pages means revenue for the companies hosting those links and sites.
But in order to compete with Google, Microsoft has to drop their prices. CNN Money reported today that Microsoft will soon announce that the web version of Office 2010 will be free. This is a direct assault on Google who last week announced that they are going to release a web OS that will be free to compete with other OS’s (SP?) on the market.
Google and Microsoft are tearing it up at each other right now which means some really interesting things for those of us in education who need to provide ways to get students using technology at a small price.
So…let’s do some simple math (because I am a simpleton when it comes to Math).
1 Netbook with a Web-based OS + Web 2.0 Tools + Online Office Suite = Rich, collaborative working tools for the cost of the hardware. A Netbook costs in a range from $100 to about $450 without the cost of the operating system.
Microsoft’s licensing for Windows XP is currently running near $100 per machine because they are pushing Vista on us all. Google releases a FREE Web Operating System which will be available in August.
Throw in some neat Web 2.0 Tools that include document, spreadsheet, presentation tools along with photo, audio, and video editors also available online for free.
Or, get access to Microsoft Office 2010 online (document, spreadsheet, and presentation tools) and throw in the other Web 2.0 tools as well.
And you get a fast track to 1:1 computing for your schools. Prices are dropping on the hardware and the giants of industry are competing by literally throwing their purses to the ground.
But what about network infrastructure? With all this need for Web OS, Web 2.0, and all resources online – how do we get high speed Internet. This is the boom to end the war between all these companies. How will the world access high speed Internet? Will it be owned by the government? Will we be taxed?
Aren’t you glad I have talked about this before? See my previous blog post from Feb 5, 2009 about how Google has been working with Motorola and Microsoft (huh?) to use the old American Broadcast System (pre-digital cable) to funnel GB-TB data lines through our existing cable systems. This old system is owned by the people and for use for the people – you and I. The “white spaces” is the old analog system which is not encumbered with broadcast television frequency and allows for some interesting testing right now to push high speed wireless broadband to any home running that old analog line.
I know. This seems ridiculous right? A little too much of a reach? Kind of like my post from September 8, 2008 about Google releasing a new browser called “Chrome” and how I predicted that they would not make an operating system – but a browser operating system??
What’s next? What’s the next prediction?
Riddle me this – I have to open a spreadsheet program now to access a database. I have to open a separate document program to create a document. I have to open another program for photos and a presentation program to work on a that system.
But what if there was only one program that not only had all these programs running simultaneously but allowed collaboration, sharing, and kept a history for the entire project? What if I didn’t need an office suite but a one-stop shop that let me do everything I needed in one window (whether I used Firefox, IE, Safari, Android, Chrome, etc.) and from whatever web device I had?
I believe this is the next WAVE. How long until Microsoft/Apple starts their own? And will they name it something similar to Wave like Tsunami? Current? Tide?
Google has developed the idea of Wave but they haven’t combined all these elements into the one system yet. I think that may be Wave 2.0 or Apple’s Me 2.0 or Windows 7.5…
Whatever the case will be, it looks like the math problem is more simplified if this is the next evolution:
Netbook/Phone + Web (Wave) = Collaboration All-in-one access point
Is this crystal ball prediction correct? We will have to wait and see….
See previews of Microsoft Office 2010 on my summer tech training site (at the bottom of the page).
