Microsoft's OpenDoc Challenger: A Unified PC Industry's Threat to Microsoft's Dominance

Strategic Insights -

The emergence of OpenDoc, a software development standard backed by most large software companies, poses a significant challenge to Microsoft's dominance in the PC industry. OpenDoc promises to deliver true interoperability among different brands of software, addressing the current limitations of compound documents that often require cumbersome workarounds. The coalition of players behind OpenDoc, including Apple, IBM, WordPerfect, and Lotus, aim to create a non-proprietary standard that would change the landscape of the software industry.

Key Takeaways:

  • OpenDoc is a software development standard backed by most large software companies except for Microsoft.
  • The standard promises to deliver true interoperability among different brands of software, addressing the current limitations of compound documents.
  • OpenDoc is not yet available, but developers should expect a final version of the code by the end of 1994, with some software based on the standard expected to hit store shelves by 1995.
  • OpenDoc will face intense competition from Microsoft's competing technology, OLE, which has a three-year head start and millions of users.
  • The commercial viability of OpenDoc has little to do with technology, but rather with the support of the software industry.
  • Software developers risk the wrath of Microsoft if they gravitate to an interoperability standard that's not OLE.
  • Major software makers such as WordPerfect and Lotus will likely put out application versions that snugly fit with both standards.
  • Small developers will have to bet on one or the other, and it remains to be seen whether the alliance members can set aside their traditional rivalries long enough to collaborate freely.

Statistics:

  • 10 million programs of software have flooded the marketplace based on OLE.
  • OLE 2.0, the second incarnation of the technology, has been on the market for the past year.
  • By 1994, developers should expect to see a final version of the OpenDoc code, with some software based on the standard expected to hit store shelves by 1995.
  • Microsoft expects to have about 100 million units of software circulating based on OLE by the time OpenDoc is released in 1995.
  • OpenDoc will allow users to mix and extend components that have as little as 20 kilobytes of memory, compared to the 1.5 to 2 megabytes required by today's monolithic applications.

Sources:

  • Bloomberg/Canadian Press
  • The Globe and Mail