How does the producer of a tragically flawed range of operating systems and office software turn problems into opportunities? The solution is simple if you are a monopoly with complete control over the sales channel: You make it so that people have to pay again to fix the problems you created first time around.
This week ZDNet are reporting Microsoft’s triumphal arrival in the Windows Security market. Or at least the announcement that they may one day arrive with at least some degree of pomp. Microsoft had stated that they intend to do what companies like Symantec currently do with their Norton range of anti-virus products.
The new anti-virus services will be targeted at both businesses and consumers, effectivly going after exactly the same marketplace that Symantec and Mcaffee compete for. They have one advantage over the traditional anti-virus vendors: The new Microsoft solution will come bundled with the next version of Windows, and possibly also with a Windows XP update. Where people have to choose Symantec or Mcaffee, they will be given Microsoft’s solution wether they asked for it or not.
Once deployed on the user’s desktop, upselling to a subscription is easy; You need only flash up a popup message warning that the computer is vulnerable, plus provide a convenient way of letting the customer subscribe. The result is that most Windows users will have a subscription to Microsoft’s service before they even consider the alternatives.
Naturally the other players in the software market have reacted with some degree of alarm to the prospect of having their marketplace disapear in moments. Symentec have responded with customary bravado about how they are going to compete with Microsoft based on their software quality and reputation; There was a time when Netscape and Real Media thought this as well, and now look where they are.
But while the AV companies talk up their prospects on the Windows platform, their desperation is obvious: As the Windows market will certainly close, the companies would like to monetize other platforms:
Symantec would like Mac OSX users to be as paranoid about viruses as Windows users - I don’t think this will work, we do not have a virus problem yet on Mac, and Symantec will have a hard time convincing us that we need to install Anti-Virus just to protect our Windows using friends.
Linux users might conceivably benefit from a server-oriented anti-virus system, however this market is much smaller and already owned by a number of free software products, and the European Anti-Virus firm Sophos who wisely decided to support all platforms for as long as I can remember.
And it hardly seems like a co-incidence that Symantec decided to hike up their prices. After all if the market is going to vanish, they might as well extract as much cash as possible from their subscribers.
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