Predictions for 1999: Microsoft OS release taps into digital nervous system

Windows 2000 launch spearheads strategy to integrate products into a single platform.

The new year will see Microsoft ship its long-anticipated and much-hyped operating system, Windows 2000. It will also mark the release of Office 2000.

For the software giant, however, 1999 represents more than isolated product releases, but the end of between five and eight years of software development. Despite the recent legal wrangles with the DoJ, Microsoft will continue to pursue a strategy of product integration.

"We are moving away from individual products to a complete platform for the digital nervous system of the future," said Oliver Roll, Microsoft's director of product marketing.

"With the latest developments in Windows, Office, BackOffice and Tools, we are finally seeing the work that began five to eight years ago become a reality."

Roll stated that Microsoft's development activities would concentrate on integrating its various products to form a single platform. He also pointed to the growth of new form factor devices which would increasingly replace PCs, claiming that Windows CE would become the operating system of choice in such devices.

The last main strand in the company's forward strategy would centre on making PCs easier to use. "It's not difficult to be simplistic, but it's hard to be simple. What we are trying to do is reduce the complexity of PCs. We want to see PCs that can listen, speak and learn," said Roll.