On Mon, 2005-11-14 at 14:34 -0700, Robin Laing wrote: > I would hate to be that student working on my term paper that needs to > be handed in tomorrow when the network connection goes down due to a > problem with one of the many hops that I have to work through.
What do you do if there is a power cut? > It is easier to download OOo and get to work. Heck, I can take my > laptop anyplace and work. Forget about having to find a wireless link. That is now. In the future it could well be that broadband on all the time becomes the norm and wireless access is everywhere in urban locations and free. Here in this office its pretty much like that already. With VOIP we could save enough on telephone bills to afford a very fast and reliable network connection. Gates is not so worried by what things are like now but what they are going to be like in 5-10 years. The trend is to networked portable technologies, to further lowering of hardware costs and free on-line services paid for by advertising. Where does a fat client dependent high cost software business model fit in that trend? Mind in 5 years I guess that a $100 client with solid state storage will easily hold an operating system and office productivity tools so maybe a web based office will be used for other reasons such as to minimise the use of files, to integrate information more closely with the web etc. Whatever the case, I can't see many people paying more for their office license or OS license than the whole of the cost of the device. The only thing that could then save margins would be to compensate for loss in value by increasing the product volume. If there is free access to web based office software and desktop computers cost < $100 and have pre-installed OS and Office software that is 100% compatible with the on-line office software who is going to pay $300 for Windows and MSO? If MS drop the price a factor of 10 they might stay in the game but that means they have to sell 10 times as much stuff to stand still. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMSL --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
