The SharePoint Swiss Army Knife

Just in case you happen to be an investor and are interested in speculation and stock debates, the Google Finance discussion boards are becoming pretty popular. I’ve been following the talks over at the MSFT discussions the last couple of days as Microsoft’s stock is hovering around $30 after beating market expectations for the quarter. As always there are trolls and Apple zealots that totally trash on Microsoft and proclaim that poor Vista sales will ruin the company, blah blah blah… It was getting so bad that I actually had to put in my 2 cents which I rarely ever do.

I think analysts are putting way too much weight on OS sales. I honestly think business applications are the dark horses for MSFT’s bottom line. I don’t think there are enough knowledgable analysts that understand MSFT’s plans for complete Office software integration that currently has nothing to do with Vista sales.

In the business world, there really is no alternative to the Office Suite and the growth of its SharePoint products. SharePoint is currently the hottest thing on just about every CIO’s mind and I do see a convergence trend going towards utilizing the SharePoint/Office suite as a foundation for businesses across all industries. This convergence will further grow MSFT’s server market share and enterprise licensing agreements.

Another argument for MSFT is the strength of its developer base. .NET programming has become the de facto buzzword/skill for job seekers and forward thinking enterprises. With today’s Mix07 keynotes by Ray Ozzie and crew, Microsoft has continued to enrich and enable these developers to create awesome applications for both the desktop and web mediums. Not to mention the ability to also create applications that are cross-platform! I apologize for the lack of a link, I was just reading it and now I can’t find it anywhere.

Developers will always be developing on the latest and greatest platforms – that is their livelihood and what sets them apart from the old farts that don’t like change. This tendency naturally pushes businesses and eventually the masses to adopt these technological improvements. Because of this…
I think analysts should be spending more time on non-OS apps (both MSFT& non-MSFT) as, I believe, they are the catalysts for OS upgrades. This includes games/server applications/business applications/etc. In this time and age, operating systems are becoming the enablers. The applications are the primary tools. What happens when you want/need to use that new tool? You need a computer with the proper operating system…