Microsoft has 400,000 Office Live customers - take that Google! UPDATE

Colorado Convention CenterDENVER - Microsoft Corp. said this morning it has 400,000 Office Live customers, an attempt to show it still has a stranglehold on the desktop software market.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, announced the goal at the software giant’s annual partner conference here this morning.

The prediction, not coincidentally, comes a day after nemesis Google Inc. said it will buy Postini, an Internet security software vendor for about US$625-million in cash.

Google’s free online version of Office was first meant for consumers. Lately, the search engine king has tried to sell Internet-oriented versions of its software but some businesses have resisted Google’s overtures because of security concerns. The Postini acquisition is meant to squash those fears.

Google’s entry into the business software market began after it added applications such as online calendars, a Web page publisher and embedded instant messaging to its Gmail e-mail service. Last year the company bought Writely, an online word processor, to enhance its Docs & Spreadsheets application, which lets users share information instantaneously.

Separately, Mr. Turner insisted Office will eventually become one of the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s top “two or three” applications over time.

Mr. Turner also insisted Microsoft will release new versions of Office and Vista in future, throwing a wet blanket on speculation the last versions of the popular desktop productivity software have been released.

The growing popularity of Web-based applications and the oft-delayed Vista launch had led to widespread industry speculation the operating system would be produced and marketed differently in future, even scrapped altogether.

ADDENDUM - According to the Washington Post, Google signs up 1,000 Google Apps customers daily.

July 10, 2007 | Filed Under News Items and Commentary 

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