Xcerion Replays Microsoft Formula

(Interesting article from RedHerring)

Xcerion Replays Microsoft Formula
Step 1: Develop operating system and lock ’em in.
By Eydie Cubarrubia


Two Microsoft alumni—former CFO John Connors and former top Windows engineer Lou Perazzoli—back Sweden’s Xcerion, making it the leading candidate in the race to create an Internetbased OS, contends a Swedish VC. Success there, it’s argued, could well make it a major player in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, which Gartner projects to rocket to $19.3 billion by 2009, from just $6.3 billion last year. “A web-based OS is extremely diffi cult to do,” says Jorgen Bladh of Stockholmbased Northzone Ventures. “Look at companies, from Microsoft to Google to many startups, trying to create it—we don’t think anyone else is even close.”
Northzone invested $10 million in Xcerion, which is based in the university town of Linköping, 150 miles southwest of Stockholm.
Xcerion claims it lets folks make do with old technology and accessing their stuff anywhere.
It also proposes to combine free software, a community for creating and selling it, and a SaaS platform. “We’re trying to become the Skype for software—do what Skype did for Internet telephony,” says CEO Daniel Arthursson (pictured). “We want to combine what eBay, Amazon, and Google do in one company—a marketplace where you can buy software, and create new software on our platform... and sell it.” The company has a seed-fi - nancing program for developers building apps on top of its OS.
Xcerion fi rst has to convince folks to use its web-based operating system, which Mr. Arthursson claims matches the latest versions of Windows or Mac OS X. Second, it has to entice developers to start making applications on its open-source software and create a community where independent coders can post their apps. And then it has to turn that community into a marketplace, where everyone congregates to buy and sell software.
Mr. Arthursson says “many, many thousands” of people worldwide have already signed up for a beta account of its operating system, dubbed XIOS. The beta launch is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
The Internet-based OS, then, is the carrot that pulls everyone in. But is Xcerion really just another proprietary venture cloaked in open-source goodness? Mr. Arthursson contends it isn’t. For starters, it’s giving away its OS and basic apps. It’s also eschewing marketing, since “We don’t want to be [perceived] as another Oracle,” he says.
But Xcerion could still fi nd itself lumped with the proprietary set, notes Martin Schneider, a former analyst at Boston-based The 451 Group. “While it can cut down the amount of time and money spent on developing functionality, it can also be seen as a new form of vendor lock-in,” he says, like Microsoft or Oracle locks people in. Relying on the Xcerion OS suggests apps running on it would have to be compatible with it, he says. “[That could] cause data integration issues with legacy and other non-SaaS applications in place.”
At least one Xcerion rival sees things that way. “Based on what I can see on the Xcerion web site, the Xcerion OS will be a powerful but closed environment which works with its own applications, all the apps, hosted by Xcerion,” says Zvi Schreiber, CEO of G.ho.st. G.ho.st’s webbased OS works with all web applications, according to Mr. Schreiber.
Unlike open-source or SaaS companies free of compatibility issues, Xcerion could have trouble snaring big business customers. “The main thing holding existing models in place is compatibility requirements, for which organizations have a high need and individuals tend not to,” says Roger Kay, founder of research fi rm Endpoint Technologies.
If Xcerion seems unfazed by such chatter, it’s because “we’re marketing mostly to consumers,” Mr. Arthursson says. “We’re aiming for the mass-consumer market, and also small businesses.”
Even analyst Mr. Kay sees the possibilities: “If it really is easy and free, people will tend to pick it up, fi rst as individuals and then, if it’s really successful, as organizations.”
Xcerion aims to transform SaaS with its combined free-and-paid model. Eventually, Mr. Arthursson says, its software could make for cheaper, heartier computers, free of hard drives—and OS upgrades.
And things could happen fast. According to Mr. Arthursson, the OS already downloads faster than Google Apps and boots up faster than Microsoft Windows, thanks to the way it’s stored in the browser.

With New Docs Design, Google's Looking a Lot Like MS

Interesting
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So yesterday Google rolled out a new GUI for Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and lookee here: The interface looks a lot like Windows Explorer.

On the right of the start page you'll find a navigation pane with folders. That's folders, a marked departure from the tagging taxonomic structure they inherited from Writely after acquiring the company in 2005. The new folder method does allow you to save docs in multiple folders, though, so it's kind of a hybrid approach. My guess: Google is trying to broaden the appeal of the online service to pave the way for including PowerPoint support later this year. Tags appeal to techies, folders appeal to everybody else.

Of course, this begs the question: What about Gmail? Google's e-mail app, with only 4 percent market share, continues to stick to a tags-only taxonomy. I wonder if tags are a bridge too far for layusers, who've grown up on the folder metaphor.