Microsoft Should Be Worried, Part 2

Yesterday I (and most of the world) wrote about Google's plans for a netbook OS. Today David Lawsky of Reuters follows up with a good piece about how start-ups -- not to mention computing trends -- could give the search giant an important edge in its battle against Redmond:

A growing number of tech entrepreneurs argue that Microsoft's current software is out of date and inefficient because, unlike applications that run off the Web in a "cloud" environment, they run one copy per person at a time, rather than allowing multiple users to share information.

"In a business setting you never work on things alone," said Tien Tzuo, chief executive of Zuora, a company that sells software to facilitate billing online.

"The idea of sending a file back and forth is just archaic," said Tzuo. "Why not just give employees an inexpensive device that allows them to plug into the Internet?"

Microsoft's Windows nonetheless dominates. It remains the operating system software for about 95 percent of PCs, with more than 950 million copies running worldwide.

Key to Windows's success is that it offers the most applications and draws the most programmers. But start-ups, who thrive on low-cost efficiency, say Google's operating system -- which will be free -- offers superior applications.

The article points out that Microsoft has advantages of its own -- a set of heretofore indispensable applications (well, mostly Excel) and mindshare, both of which create a certain cost of conversion for enterprises and businesses. But you have to think that "superior applications" will win out in the end, especially if the cost of conversion may be as much psychological as financial. After all, mindshare isn't infinite.