“Say goodbye to costly software on CD-ROMs installed in big,
crash-prone, desktop computers. And say hello to the future, when
software applications come to you easily over the Internet as a
service, like a phone service.”
“Paying a Service to Hold Your Data
You will be charged a monthly fee according to use — like
electricity or water. And your files will be stored by your
Internet service provider in a large server and protected by a
password.”
“Transition Means Upheaval at Microsoft
But for the software industry itself, going from making products to
providing a service means upheaval — especially at giant
Microsoft. …software users will no longer need Microsoft’s
proprietary Windows operating system in their computers —
just a browser that accesses the Internet. And that could destroy
Microsoft’s monopoly dominance and eat into its bottom
line.”