Microsoft says FireFox, SaaS, are competition to Windows Vista
By Justin Montgomery
Microsoft recently filed its annual 10-K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing several new competitors in several markets. One of which was FireFox believe or not, along with several software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications that are rising in popularity. While it’s unclear why Microsoft would deem FireFox a threat to Windows Vista, it’s likely the latest push for so-called “cloud computing” would be to blame.
FireFox has more or less trumped Internet Explorer in recent years which explains why Microsoft is a little worried, but with pre-installed Vista installation via consumer-packaged PCs the bread-and-butter of their business, they’re going to do everything they can to avoid the same thing happening to their beloved Vista.
According to InformationWeek, the report to the SEC stated; “The Windows operating system faces competition from alternative platforms and new devices that may reduce consumer demand for traditional personal computers, competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of Windows products. User and usage volumes on mobile devices are increasing around the world relative to the PC.” In other words, Microsoft feels SaaS and mobile devices pose the biggest threat to Vista and its subsequent applications such as Internet Explorer.
Microsoft has also expressed interest in pursuing cloud computing as a future business model, but with most of a computer’s functions being carried out on a third-party server, the most important aspect is what you use to access that web-based content. The web-browser takes on a whole other meaning, when it becomes the sole source to access a computer’s functions. To me, this should be the biggest threat to Vista. User’s with FireFox can access a cloud-computing environment with zero help from Vista or any other proprietary OS for that matter.
With mobile devices becoming a more prominent way to access web-based content, it makes for an even bigger threat to PC-based operating systems. Similar to cloud-computing, an open-source mobile web-browser capable of a “full-web” experience like that of the iPhone, is all one would need to access almost anything via their mobile device.
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