As part of Google’s 10th anniversary, last month there was a post on the Official Google Blog about the future of cloud computing. Just a couple of weeks later, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made remarks about a new operating system Microsoft is developing that he called Windows Cloud. Ballmer states that the official announcement of the product will be coming within a month.
I wonder if perhaps the post on the Google blog prompted him to reveal the existence of Windows Cloud. It is suspected the official product will not bear that name, but I also wonder if Google’s discussion of the intelligent cloud also prompted him to dub it so. I think that if companies spent less time trying to copycat industry leaders, they might be more effective in competing.
Rarely is it possible to steal market share by building a better mousetrap. It is much better to create an entire new market by inventing an entirely new product. Perhaps the best line in the Google article for Microsoft to pay attention to is the quoting of Alan Kay: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” I’d argue that is also the best way to profit in the future.