Microsoft VP says Google’s playing defense with Chrome OS

July 10, 2009 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

walid-abuhadba1Microsoft founder Bill Gates may not want to comment on Chrome OS, the just-announced operating system from Google. But Walid Abu-Hadba, the software giant’s Vice President of Developer and Platform Evangelism, was more forthcoming tonight about his thoughts on Google’s supposed threat to Windows.

I spoke to Abu-Hadba at a dinner in San Francisco to promote tomorrow’s launch of Silverlight 3, the latest version of Microsoft’s platform for web media and applications. Some of his remarks about Chrome consisted of entertaining bluster: “I love competition.” But he also had thoughts about why Google is trying to muscle into the operating system business. And no, he said, it’s not because Google wants to make computing simpler and faster (as Google executives claim), nor is it part of a grand plan to undo Microsoft’s dominance (as VentureBeat writer Dean Takahashi speculated).

“Most of what Google does is defensive,” Abu-Hadba said.

You may be wondering how Google can be playing defense when it’s entering a market for the first time, but Abu-Hadba said it’s not about operating systems at all; instead, Google is trying to distract competitors from attacking its cash cow, search. He argued that whenever Google enters a new market, like releasing mobile operating system Android, it’s trying to force competitors to focus on existing products, rather than challenging Google in search. And the company may actually feel threatened for the first time in years, since Microsoft recently made a splash with its revamped “decision engine” Bing, and traffic appears to be growing (sort of — see Search Engine Land’s analysis).

You could argue that Microsoft itself is making a similar move with Silverlight, which is taking on Adobe’s more established Flash platform. Not surprisingly, Abu-Hadba describes things a bit differently. It’s less about taking market share from Adobe, and more about improving Microsoft’s overall platform for the development of software, he said. And as for Adobe, Abu-Hadba said the company’s past focus on designers makes it poorly equipped to compete as a development platform. In fact, he predicted that, in 10 or 15 years, Adobe will have either died or transformed dramatically.

“They don’t know how to deal with developers,” he said.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • HereAndNow
    I think Google may be trying to refocus the industries' attention on web apps, as the way forward for cross-platform app development.

    Currently, smartphone app developers must support different development languages, frameworks, tools, etc., in order to deliver apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, WebOS, Symbian, WinMo, etc. platforms. Modern mobile browsers would allow developers to build a single web app that would run on all of these platforms.

    If the Chrome OS (and other platforms) were to support BONDI, which specifies secure JavaScript interfaces to device resources (files, cameras, accelerometers, GPS, etc.), it would be possible to develop full-featured applications that run in the browser.

    A link to the BONDI website is here:
    http://bondi.omtp.org
  • Charbax
    Android and Chrome will soon run on $100 full sized laptops that run 20 hours on a regular 3 cell battery and are even sunlight readable. That will basically kill off Microsoft, Apple, Intel and even Adobe cause Chrome is HTML5 which replaces Flash with open standards.

    Adobe Flash has been one of the reasons the mass market would not move away from Microsoft and X86. But now that Adobe is moving away, supporting ARM and Linux, Microsoft feels threatened and have to try to force their own proprietary and bloated silverlight onto consumers. Bing is not getting more traffic, Microsoft is forcing all users of Windows OS that use Internet Explorer to search by default in Bing, obviously that brings a certain amount of users overnight to their bing search engine. But nobody is voluntarily moving over to Bing.
  • Geek
    >> That will basically kill off Microsoft, Apple, Intel and even Adobe cause Chrome is HTML5 which replaces Flash with open standards.

    HTML5 will not be replacing Flash until/unless a video codec is decided on (http://is.gd/1tJud). Although Google could of course solve this for *their* browser. But that would not be a standards-based solution.
  • GeekMonger
    "Microsoft is forcing all users of Windows OS that use Internet Explorer to search by default in Bing, obviously that brings a certain amount of users overnight to their bing search engine."

    That's actually not true - IE gives you a choice on startup.
  • technicalevangelist
    >> “They don’t know how to deal with developers,” he said.

    That's more true of the current Microsoft than it is of Adobe. Having been a part of the Cameron Myhrvold era of Developer Relations at Microsoft, where 3rd party developers were Windows royalty... the past 5 to 8 years for Microsoft has been all about defense. Even the fact that Google can use the word 'chrome' when it was originally a Microsoft codeword for tech that would have beaten Flash and Unity.

    Now Silverlight is just like the busted strategy of competing with Apple with Video For Windows. Following the competition instead of listening to the developers.
  • The only problem is, Video for Windows DID successfully compete with Apple.

    Disregarding Flash video for the moment (which is obviously the leader now in Internet video), how often do you see Windows media formats being used compared to Quicktime formats?
  • Hmm, I'd be interested in hearing more specifics about how you think Microsoft's relationship with developers has changed.
  • zato
    Walid Abu-Hadba said "nor is it part of a grand plan to undo Microsoft’s dominance (as VentureBeat writer Dean Takahashi speculated)."

    You're right Walid, it's not part of a plan to end Microsoft's dominance. It's part of a plan to rid the planet of a pestilence.
  • xtduser
    Old broken record, buddy. Times have moved on. Google's the new upcoming pestilence. Time for you to move on, too.
  • zato
    Sure thing, gamer.
  • Isn't it possible to hate more than one company at once?
  • Jay
    Yes it is! I hate alot more companies than MS and Google, though I find it hard to hate Apple, try as I may. Ha has brains!
  • fred
    Ha yes I understand what he's saying.

    he's saying it is like when the cable companies go into telephony and the phone company go into television service. it's all about keeping the competition buzy defending their turf so they are too buzy to develop into a competitor.

    now is that true for google android, I'm not sure.
  • rojo
    Holy crap.
  • It's pretty bold for anyone to start throwing out predictions, especially where it concerns a company's very existence like Adobe. It's a quick way to lose credibility and shows a lack of leadership experience.

    The simplest answer is usually the correct one, and it's likely Google has grown large enough to introduce multiple product lines, each with their own product cycles and agendas. Is Chrome meant as a distraction? Probably not, it's just growing on it's own. There is no doubt it has gained considerable market share.