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Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Live Mesh, which will be demonstrated at the Web 2.0 Expo at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West later Wednesday, is a platform. That’s what Amit Mital, Live Mesh general manager, calls his company’s new data and management service.
‘Tis the season of platforms. Facebook has one. So does Bebo and MySpace. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) too has a platform, as does Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE), and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), not to mention Sun’s Java.
The platforms differ in terms of scope and capabilities, but they’re all at heart places to run software.
Currently, there are a lot more places to run software than there used to be, thanks to the proliferation of mobile phones and other devices, and the simultaneous standardization that’s required for such devices to interact with the Internet.
So it is that much of the buzz about platforms at Web 2.0 has to do with defining platforms: their relation to the Web, their capabilities, and their boundaries.
Microsoft’s Live Mesh, in its current preview form, represents an effort to define the Windows operating system as a platform that spans PCs, the Internet, and Windows-capable devices. At its heart, it is a data synchronization service, but it is also a bid to define Microsoft as the source of cloud computing.
Indeed, Microsoft claims to have ambitions beyond the wedding of Windows and the Internet. “[O]ur vision of your device mesh extends far beyond this,” says Mital in a blog post. “In the near future, we’ll add support for the Mac and mobile devices, and then we’ll build upon that foundation.”
Microsoft, it seems, is embracing software as a service, rather than as a reason to commit to Windows. It remains to be seen however whether Windows users will occupy positions of privilege on Microsoft’s evolving platform.
Mital characterized the debut of Live Mesh as “the beginning of an ongoing dialog with you that spawns lots of new ideas and opportunities.”
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