maximillianos - 3:29 pm on Feb 8, 2010 (gmt 0)

G kicks sand at MS: - Google Docs vs. MS Office - Chrome vs. MS Explorer - Chrome OS (coming soon) vs. Windows - Gmail vs. Hotmail - Android vs. Windows Mobile

I'm no expert, but I think each example above is not an attempt to kick sand at anyone, but rather expand and improve on a product line that went stagnant.

MS pretty much abandoned taking Word/Office to the next level (internet/web apps) until the competition did it first.

Internet Explorer was neglected for years (security holes, no new features), again leaving the door wide open for competition like Firefox to take some market share away.

Hotmail was/is a mess. They had so many opportunities to make that product a solid email platform. Instead they left it to remain stagnant and lost a big market share to other email platforms. I use to be a loyal Hotmail user until I got tired of how many clicks it took me to get things done, and got tired of the spam, and the fact that they wanted to charge me for the same service I could get for free else where.

Windows Mobile has struggled for years to get it right. They simply shrunk down Windows, which just doesn't work.

Microsoft has left all these doors open. Google (and Apple, Sun/Oracle, etc) would all be fools not to try and take advantage of Microsoft's lack of attention to these product lines.

This isn't sand kicking, this is progress. IE is better now because of competition. Office is getting better now due to OpenOffice and Google Docs, Hotmail is getting better now (I think) due to Gmail.

They should be thanking the competition for waking them up.