The New 'Normal'

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer talks about the phrase – ‘The New Normal’ in his most recent executive email. The ‘New normal’ equates to the new economy and social baseline since the economy went down the toilet last year. People are generally spending less, saving more and being more cautious. He then follows by saying

I believe the new normal requires a new kind of efficiency built on technology innovations that enable businesses and organizations to simultaneously drive cost savings, improve productivity, and speed innovation.

No really? I am pretty sure that if I picked almost any press release at random from Microsoft in the last 10 years that these phrases in one guise or another would come wheedling out of the woodwork.

These new efficiency gains, where will they come from? Steve says Windows 7, Exchange 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2… <tumbleweed> cough </tumbleweed>

If he had mentioned fully featured, on-line office productivity applications, designed for today’s web centric life then small businesses, students and social organisations would be cheering so hard it would make his ears bleed. As it is, this just fuels speculation that the upcoming On-line Office 2010 apps are merely a protectionist stance to maintain the cashcow and keep the customers using more expensive fat applications.

As it is there is already a solution that fits the bill, its called Zoho. Check it out here, and get a free trial for various apps here