It might not be with products that directly relate to law firms, but Microsoft does seem to be positioning itself for a fight back against Google and Apple. There have been three stories in the last few weeks that I think point to this:

1. Announcement of Google Chrome OS. Now this one is an odd one to point out as on the face of it it seems to be a Google pulling away story. But it’s been the subsequent “what ifs” that caught my eye. Particularly the ones like this “Free Windows 7 Internet Edition To Tackle Google Chrome OS?“. If Microsoft offer Windows 7 free, even for a limited period, they could and probably would get such a foothold in netbooks as to kill Chrome before it launches.
2. Microsoft is to launch a music streaming service. If they can get this right then this may be the service to seriously challenge iTunes. A Spotify type service allowing free music streaming supported by adverts. If integrated into the xbox would put it right in the centre of home entertainment and if they could somehow hook it into the Zune then finally the iPod may get competition (one off cost for a Zune and then free music!)
3. Finally the announcement of a free online version of Office! A real challenge to Google Docs. Yes, Google may have the head start but Microsoft have the trusted brand here, Microsoft Office. I mean wouldn’t you rather use Word? This last one may be of interest to law firms!

Microsoft are starting to join the “Free” business model in the consumer market and could really start to fight back in the battle against Apple and Google. I think this is a good thing, competition makes better products and if Microsoft really can bring ideas from the excellent xbox division into their business offerings we may get some real improvements in usability over endless extra functionality.

From a law firm perspective it will be interesting how the development of the web based Office goes and how the consumer model of a “cloud” for all my documents and emails evolves in the business environment.

After all if I’ve unlimited email capacity with no performance drop off (e.g. GMail/Hotmail) and access to my documents and word processor anywhere (e.g. Google Docs/Office online) at home, will I accept the storage constraints and performance constraints of the desktop products at work?