Microsoft makes a feeble effort

Pity the poor company that has a monopoly, but then finds itself out-paced. Thus, good old MS finds that its locked-up goods aren't wanted anymore. In an effort to appear to respond to dynamic Internet applications, it has allowed a subset of Office to work on the net.

Old MS has had trouble expanding out of its fortress. It has tried to move into several areas, such as health care and database integration. I know that most of its products (out of its main line) are pure garbage, which is understandable since they haven't had to really program for a long time (Biz-talk is a dog!).

Everything is moving to dynamic applications, away from stand-alone. The most recent attack has been on stand-alone GPS devices. They've been selling for 40% gross margin, because there is a cartel on the maps. Navteq has just been bought by Nokia, which will combine GPS and cell phones, to provide real-time traffic maps, for an annual subscription. No more paying $400 to Garmin for new map software every year. Since Nokia will now attempt to throttle Google, the alternative will be user-generated maps.