Should You Mesh or Me?
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News Analysis. Late yesterday, Microsoft quietly opened up the Live Mesh Technical Preview to most anyone in the United States—less than a week after Apple launched MobileMe. Coincidence? Yeah, right. |
International users can join, too, simply by changing their Windows region and language to U.S.-English.
The announcement came on the Live Mesh forum, rather than the Live Mesh blog, which is where I would have looked for it. I suppose that broadening the Tech Preview without really telling many people is one way to avoid the kind of scale and service problems MobileMe had during last week's launch. C`mon, how many people follow the Live Mesh forum? I regularly blog this stuff, and I wasn't looking there. Thanks to LiveSide.net for finding the post.
From the forum post: "The Live Mesh team is pleased to announce that anyone in the U.S. can now use Live Mesh just by signing in to www.mesh.com with a valid Windows Live ID. No sign up needed to participate!"
Live Mesh Hassle Free
The no sign-up thing is huge, for several important reasons:
- Microsoft leverages its more than 400—approaching 500—million Windows Live IDs.
- Live Mesh is easily available to anyone with a Live ID. Grandma can share files simply by logging in with her ID. Drop-dead simple will keep her from dropping dead because of frustration.
- People can use Live Mesh anywhere for the first time, without concerns about signups on public computers. Can you say Internet cafe?
Live ID gives Mesh an instant-in, whenever Microsoft flips on the switch for real. The lights are on for U.S. users, but there's not much in the room but a chair to sit on. Windows is required, for now anyway, to properly set up Live Mesh. Mac and Mobile support are supposed to come someday. Microsoft promises lots of device support, but it's maybe a long way off.
Live Mesh and MobileMe are early, leading competing data synchronization services, but building off two different platforms: Windows for Microsoft and iPhone/iPod Touch for Apple. As I've repeatedly said, sync is the killer application for the connected world. But, so far, Apple is connecting the world quicker than Microsoft.
MobileMe has got the early services lead, because it is:
- Far more developed than Live Mesh.
- Currently capable of syncing more kinds of content.
- More broadly available in more geographies.
- Available on more devices (iPhone, iPod/Touch, Mac or Windows PC).
MobileMe Is Mobile You
MobileMe's real platform is iPhone/iPod Touch, which significance I simply cannot understate. The iPhone 3G is hot, hot, hot. Apple sold 1 million devices in the first three days. Sure 1 million is nothing compared to the 1 billion cell phones that will ship this year. But with distribution coming to 70 countries and strong demand, iPhone is posed to rapidly gain market share.
Computing is going mobile, with the smart phone poised to displace the PC as most important computing device. In Apple Watch or Microsoft Watch comments, I see some resistance to the concept that anything could displace the PC. I'm not saying that the PC will immediately go away, but it's relevance is diminishing.
Let me use some analogies to make what I assert absolutely clear:
- iPod and home stereo systems. Apple's little device accomplished what the original Walkman couldn't—displace the home stereo. Sure people still buy in-home or in-car stereo systems, but how many of them incorporate iPod? Restated: How many of them don't incorporate iPod?
- Google Maps, GPS and paper maps. AAA still offers its fold-out maps, but people can more easily Google or Mapquest their way from here to there or navigate using a GPS system.
- Mobile phones and landlines. Who doesn't have a cell phone? Restated: Who with a cell phone uses a landline or uses a landline more? Most people I know or work with give out their cell phone as the primary number.
I'm convinced that these examples are analogous to the mobile and PC. As phones getting smarter and more connected—and carried everywhere—they increasingly displace common PC functions. There is a computational/informational relevance shift from the PC to the mobile and supporting server services cloud. Sync is the glue that binds the mobile to the cloud.
Apple has got a mobile sync service now, while other than Exchange sync for business smart phones/PDAs, Microsoft has got nothing but promises. Consumers will drive mobile adoption, as they have done for more than a decade. The first Palm PDAs, Blackberrys and Windows Mobile smart phones first came to enterprises by rogue employees buying the devices for personal use. Apple has got a device and service with consumer appeal.
Just Give It Away
Microsoft executives aren't imbeciles. They know mobile is the future, but there is a lot of self denial wrapped in continued huge Office and Windows revenues. So, Microsoft's corporate will is lacking, which makes building out data center infrastructure a good excuse for slowly moving into the server cloud services.
That said, nothing pesters the sleeping Microsoft giant like Jack running up the beanstalk and stealing some food. So, days after MobileMe's rocky launch (oh, those pesky servers), Microsoft expands the Live Mesh Technical Preview to lots more people. Live Mesh is free (although all its services may not always be), while MobileMe costs $99 a year.
Microsoft's tested-and-true strategy is undercutting competitors. Offer something for less or for free what someone else charges for. The examples are too many, but the ones most people will recognize are probably Web browsing and media playback. That said, MobileMe is free for the first 60 days. The service has flaws, but it sure as hell offers more than Live Mesh. For now.
Related Posts:
- What Microsoft Should Learn from iPhone 3G, Microsoft Watch, July 14, 2008
- MobileMe Enters the Info Highway, Apple Watch, July 10, 2008
- Live Mesh Update, Microsoft Watch, June 19, 2008
- Will MobileMe Mesh?, Microsoft Watch, June 10, 2008
- It's Time for a .Mac Makeover, Apple Watch, May 30, 2008
- Why Live Mesh Can Save Microsoft, Microsoft Watch, April 23, 2008
- Live Mesh: Windows Becomes the Web, Microsoft Watch, April 23, 2008
- Do IT Simply with Sync, Microsoft Watch, March 11, 2008
Comments (14)
I agree that mobile is a growing field, and is very important for software applications development. There are many software applications that are better suited to cell phones than for PCs. Mappoint, Streets & Trips, IM apps, Calendar, appointments, reminders, tasks, lists, etc are much more suitable on a smartphone where they are constantly on the go riding their master.
However, there are some applications that are better suited for the PC, and will maintain their market share. Office applications is one of them. No, you say? How many times have you sat down to your cell phone to write a term paper? Compare that with a PC.
So, I postulate that any activity that takes 15 minutes of typing/thinking/scrolling on the PC will maintain a solid application base on PC (regardless of OS). That is not to say that such activities may have applications developed to quickly access the current result/embodiment of such activites. Mobile PDF and mobile office applications are great for quick access/modifications, but will always lag in features.
Why?
Its too easy to add hundreds of features in a known development environment (Java, .NET, Flash, web apps), than to add ten features in portable platforms that are constantly evolving and deliberately shorted on features. These platforms struggle for a developer base, but not the multitude of very stable PC platforms.
Ten years from now may be a different story, just as ten years ago pagers and mini-brick cell phones were the darling of technology.
My email is mispelled on purpose.
Posted by Ryan | July 16, 2008 3:23 PM
THere is something wrong with MS right now. There is no integration what so ever in products. We have skydrive, office business, shared view, folder share and now this mesh. It's a Live Mess. To add injury to insult these fools can't even get the damn thing properly working. i mean the whole world wants less UAC and then comes along this installer which ssys I won't work till you have UAC enabled. I mean what shit!
What the hell is wrong with these guys. Can't they get something working fine with even their own software. Retards.
Posted by Manan | July 16, 2008 4:00 PM
SO, first you suggest they pushed this to a broader audience because MobileMe was launched last week.
THEN, you suggest they put the announcement on a place no one looks.
You talk out of both sides of your face.
Posted by enough | July 16, 2008 5:14 PM
An unpatched PC is likely to last just four minutes on the internet before being attacked and compromised. (here they are talking about a windows computer)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/unpatched_pc_survival_drops/
Posted by sam | July 17, 2008 12:18 AM
Newspaper site spreads Virus
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/16/tubetube-users-safe-court-order
"COMPUTER USERS unfortunate enough to visit seattletimes.com, seattlepi.com or NWautos.com between 9 am Friday and 2 pm on Sunday could have been walloped by a virus.
Dodgy code on advertising for all three sites infected any one with an out-of-date copy of Microsoft's Internet Exploder.............."
And which OS use IE? That would be Windows. Unsafe, at even safe sites.
Posted by sam | July 17, 2008 12:22 AM
@ Manan,
Are you surprised Microsoft can suddenly interconnect and interoperate? So am I. So am I.
I wonder how many others are surprised?
Are you surprised they made a low key announcement? I'm not. Not at all.
Posted by portuno | July 17, 2008 12:47 AM
The mobile site m.mesh.com is also up.
Posted by anup | July 17, 2008 2:11 AM
Hi,
really, the goals of Live Mesh and Mobile Me are completely different. One is designed to cover a a small number of predefined scenarios. Live Mesh is designed to be a platform with it's own SDK which means you can program against it and for me that makes it much more important. Currently there are lots of niche apps out there which could all be built on top of Live Mesh e.g. Evernote and once the SDK is available you could even build your own version of it. I would love to be able to build an application for ipod touch /iphone but to do that I need to go through hoops compared to all other devices.
In the end as always it is about developers and winning the development platform battle.
Martin
Posted by Martin | July 17, 2008 3:10 AM
"Microsoft has got nothing but promises" - Download Windows Live Mobile for WinMob. It syncs Contacts and Email. And proves MS is acting on promises.
Posted by foaf | July 17, 2008 4:52 AM
@Joe: "Apple has got a mobile sync service now"
Um, have you actually used it Joe? MobileMe is a joke. The push functionality barely works during workdays. And for $100/yr, you get a site that's almost unusable compared to the features you get with the FREE gmail, hotmail or y! mail.
Yahoo already has activesync working on the iPhone. It's just a matter of time before Microsoft adds it to Hotmail (and Google, and everyone).
Posted by Timmah | July 18, 2008 11:56 AM
Timmah wrote: "Um, have you actually used it Joe?"
Sure, Timmah, otherwise why write about MobileMe?
Since Saturday, I've had no troubles with the service. It's not real push, though. There is a 15-minute delay.
Apple sync is bigger than MobileMe and unified across devices and services. Microsoft isn't even close yet. I expect Google to get sync right before Microsoft, which is something Microsoft shouldn't let happen.
Maybe competition will bring out some of the excellence Microsoft is known to muster when the pressure is on.
Joe
Posted by Joe | July 18, 2008 4:12 PM
i didnt got what's reason behind releasing Live Mesh such a silently,MS has never worked like this.
Posted by BlogsDNA | July 19, 2008 11:22 AM
BlogsDNA,
Joe knows but he must be bound by a NDA.
I'm obviously not under any NDA's. LOL!~
Posted by I-Man | July 20, 2008 10:08 AM
@Joe:"Since Saturday, I've had no troubles with the service. It's not real push, though. There is a 15-minute delay. "
Right... that's the point of push, it's supposed to be instantaneous. When MobileMe is working correctly, which is only usually at night, it does this properly.
@Joe: "Apple sync is bigger than MobileMe and unified across devices and services. Microsoft isn't even close yet."
I don't understand what you mean by this. Most customers of the iPhone who are going to be doing syncing will be doing it with Microsoft's ActiveSync and Exchange Server!
Posted by Timmah | July 20, 2008 12:14 PM