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1 Introduction
The internet is a dynamic, innovative and fast changing market.
It has been making a huge impact on many aspects of business and everyday life.
Internet made large enterprises fail and also made small ideas become large enterprises. An example for the latter is Google Inc, the ultimate player in web search and advertising business of nowadays.
Google began to define its business as “search, ads and apps ” where the apps are mainly run on the web and reached trough a web browser. So besides its web search and advertising business, Google has been developing applications that rival Microsoft’s traditional consumer software.
By offering Google Docs, a free online tool similar to the Microsoft Office Package, they are attacking Microsoft at its current biggest revenue source. by offering Chrome, a free web browser they are attacking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. And in the long terms Chrome means a serious threat also for Microsoft’s Windows as Google seems moving computing from having an operating system as a platform for applications, to running everything on the web.
Google’s business model is simple: They attract as many web users as possible, thus creating the largest-ever web audience for advertisers who are willing to pay in order to be found in web searches or seen on websites and applications. So the software development costs are covered by advertisement fees. In contrast, users of traditional Microsoft consumers have to pay a licence fee.
So we raise questions like: Will Microsoft be able to cope with the new market- and technology changes? Will Microsoft be as powerful in the future as today? Or has Microsoft already lost the ...