BusinessWeek: Microsoft´s Enterprising Endeavor

US$500 million for a marketing campaign. It had to come from somewhere....IBM, with a $90billion-a-year business of selling technology to businesses, doesn't intimidateeasily. Ken [B]isconti, vice-president for IBM Lotus Workplace products,calls Ballmer's speech a "thinly-veiled promotion" for the upcomingWindows and Office launches. "Windows and Office attempt toprolong Microsoft's pre-Internet, proprietary, one-size-fits-all computingmodel," [B]isconti says. "We embrace open-technology standards,which give customers the ability to mix and match the technology they use."He also points out that while IBM offers a vast array of tech services,its $15.8 billion-a-year software business is second in size only to Microsoft's.Indeed, while open-source software hasmounted a serious challenge to Microsoft, IBM is the only company thatcan offer a wide array of software for large corporations that runs onboth the server and the desktop. Its IBM Workplace products, launched twoyears ago, provide Internet-based applications designed for specific jobsin corporations -- from call-center operator to bank employee. Revenuesfor the Lotus unit, which includes most of the Workplace products, increased10% last year. The BusinessWeek article is a prettystraightforward on-the-spot reaction to yesterday's Ballmer bluster andthe new MS campaign.  I suppose this is a better approach to chidingcustomers to upgrade than calling them "dinosaurs".One of MS's key messages yesterday seemsto be to emphasize that IBM is supposedly a services company.  IBMis also a US$15.8 billion software company.  Would it make sense ifIBM started trying to paint Microsoft as a games manufacturer due to Xbox? This is a silly attempt to create pure FUD.Link: BusinessWeek:Microsoft's Enterprising Endeavor>