[Am-info] query about MS "Innovations"

[felmon davis]

On Saturday 30 March 2002 12:11, John Bryan wrote:
> Get your Joo-janta Rant Protective Eyewear ready....
>
> On Friday, March 29, 2002, at 01:40  PM, Felmon Davis wrote:
> > It sounds like the answer is not very clear-cut. Recall the
> > original question: Has MS 'innovated' in 'interoperability' in
> > office suites either in the sense of (a) inventing new
> > functionality (the 'whole idea' of an office suite, so to speak)
> > or (b) inventing new plumbing (OLE, DDE, whatever).
>
> If an 'office suite' suite is an innovation, it is in that it was
> just another way for MS to do the same thing as they've always
> done.  The part of the apps working together was not a part of it
> in the beginning.
>
> My take on the Office Suite thing was that they included all the
> 'office type' apps in a bundle for the same cost as just one of
> them separately.  
> [...apologies: rest of post deleted...]

Tying some of the thread together, I can say something like the 
following to my colleague:

The idea of bundling apps into a suite isn't original with MS (as 
others downthread have pointed out) though it was a tremendously 
powerful bit of marketing strategy - it gave MS a significant 
competitive advantage. It wasn't a technical innovation for MS since 
many of the plumbing ideas came from IBM's OpenDoc. 

Moreover, MS's technical implementation has the disadvantage of 
weighing down system resources with 'manatees'.  

And while the consumer gains something: a bundle of apps for much 
less than it would cost to buy them separately, the consumer is also 
saddled with some inferior apps. Further, the loss of competition 
also diminishes the consumer's options. 

MS innovated neither the technology nor the idea of an office suite. 
It did, however, alter the game much to its advantage.

F.