Microsoft braves security market
2005-11-30 08:38
New York - Microsoft Corp is to invite people to try its long-awaited consumer computer-security service on Wednesday, marking the software giant's biggest step to date into the security market.
The company will make its Windows OneCare Live "computer health" service available to all attendees for free in a "beta" test designed to see how well it works on a massive scale of potentially millions of consumers.
Microsoft plans to support OneCare with a monthly subscription fee once it is formally launched some time next year.
OneCare brings together Microsoft's own antivirus, firewall, backup and recovery and PC maintenance tools under the umbrella of a single internet service.
It had been undergoing testing by a more limited group of about 15 000 customers for the last five months that was aimed at helping Microsoft work out bugs in the product.
The company sees in OneCare both a way to assuage frustrated customers, who have been overrun with viruses and other malicious programs targeting the near-ubiquitous Windows operating system, and a way to enter a fast-growing part of the software market.
Taking on rivals
The expanded trials will also be an important test for Microsoft's new "Windows Live" strategy, which Chairperson Bill Gates and Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie unveiled in late October.
With Live, Microsoft aims to build products that take better advantage of the internet to provide customers with powerful new features and quicker product improvements. The strategy is Microsoft's response to a trend that has vaulted competitors like Google and Salesforce.com to prominence.
It could also bring Microsoft new sources of subscription-fee and online-advertising revenue.
Microsoft's security approach is based on two services: OneCare and an ad-supported website dubbed the Windows Live Safety Centre (http://safety.live.com), which offers free on-demand virus clean-ups.
Together they will make PC care more similar to car maintenance. "You can go change your oil" at the website, Microsoft explains, "or, if you don't want to do that and want continuous protection, you can take it to a full-service shop."
The full-service OneCare will let users manage security and maintenance tasks from one place and gauge the overall state of their PC's health with a kind of traffic light signal: a red, yellow or green bar in the top right corner of the screen. They will also be able to get instructions for how to get to green, or "good". The service will also include phone and e-mail support.
For common Windows user
"This is not for the super tech savvy. This is for the common Windows user who just wants their PC to be safe."
Microsoft began developing the concept for OneCare three an a half years ago when it started studying how it could improve customer satisfaction with Windows. At the time, Microsoft was taking increasing heat for the proliferation of viruses attacking Windows users and disclosures of security flaws in its software.
During a year of market research, Microsoft found that customers weren't just worried about viruses, they also fretted about losing their data, groused about slowing computer performance and longed for a single place where they could get all of their PC problems resolved.
The company ran a trial in 2003 called PC Satisfaction that used virus protection and firewall software created by other companies and checked for security patches but allowed users to control everything from one screen.
In this early iteration, users had a "PC Safety Meter" that told them where they stood and what to do to move the meter's needle from weak to good. Microsoft also tested a 24-hour support line to advise users on PC problems of all sorts.
Customer feedback was "overwhelmingly positive," says Dennis Bonsall, group product manager for Windows OneCare Live, so Microsoft plunged into making the concept a reality.