Software + Services will "stretch from Xbox to servers"

 

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By Barry Collins in Los Angeles

Posted on 26 Oct 2008 at 17:54

Microsoft says its vision for "Software + Services" will span everything from games consoles to business servers, reports Barry Collins at PDC 2008 in Los Angeles.

The company will devote a day to explaining its cloud-computing vision at this week's Professional Developers Conference, but in a pre-show session, the company said it will span the entire gamut of consumer and business devices.

"This is as much an Xbox strategy as much as it's a server and tools strategy," said David Appel, group proudct manager for developer and platform evangelism at Microsoft.

The company claims the "entire industry" is focusing on combining rich desktop applications with online services. "Customers would like the to have the best of both worlds," Appel said. "Users want the power of choice about what kind of things they're going to do where."

And in a hint of things to come, Appel said the days of all-encompassing desktop applications are coming to an end. "Solutions are transitioning away from big monolithic applications, and will be smaller pieces joined together at the hub," Appel said.

Steve Ballmer has previously hinted at online online add-ons becoming a focal point of Office 14. "If you are in an internet café and you want to do some light editing we need to provide for that," Ballmer said recently.

We should find out exactly what that entails later this week.