GeneralWeb Apps Won't Kill the Desktop, Microsoft Says

An executive charges that Google and other Web services still need rich functions on clients.

Recommend this story? Yes No Please Wait... A top Microsoft Corp. executive defended desktop application software, the source of the company's revenue for three decades, arguing in a presentation last week that even services-based companies such as Google Inc. still need it.The comments by Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business applications division, come as Microsoft is trying to position itself as a company capable of delivering applications over the Internet as well as on PCs, its traditional distribution model. "It's interesting some our competitors who like to espouse the idea that software is dead," said Raikes said. "I think they're worried that actually people like a lot of what they have at their fingertips and the real success is to use a combination."Microsoft has come under increasing pressure from companies such as Salesforce.com Inc., which specializes in Web-based CRM (customer relationship management) applications and Google, whose Docs suite is an online alternative to Microsoft's Office suite. Web-based applications tend to be cheaper, easier to update and require little installation since applications are delivered through a Web browser.Raikes claimed during a... [ Read more on www.pcworld.com ]

GeneralMicrosoft Delays Dynamics Update

The next version of the accounting and management business application won't ship until 2008.

GeneralOracle to acquire Interlace Systems

Oracle is acquiring Interlace Systems, a provider of strategic operational planning software, which will extend Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management System.