Bite the hand that feeds you?

Zoli is uncomfortable that Sabeer Bhatia, who started then sold Hotmail to Microsoft is now planning to launch a SaaS version of Office.

If that is the case, then Intel is the worst offender in our industry as it keeps funding the new generation of chips which kills its own previous generation. How about Dave Duffield in the HR category?  PwC partners potentially competing with IBM? Gideon Gartner starting Giga?

Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Gartner are all big boys with plenty of lawyers - and big hands. A little competition is good for everyone.

Update: Matt Assay analyzes the offering with comments from Sabeer's company at bottom

Comments

[Zoli Erdos]

Vinnie, I am not criticising him for launching a competitor product, in fact I like it... the more web-based apps the better.

It's his rip-off of the Windows Live brand I was talking about.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Zoli, the bigger vendors copy so much from innovative small companies and brand it something else. Is that really any better?

[Scott Lawton (Blogcosm)]

Vinnie: I certainly won't defend the big guys, but isn't your argument just "two wrongs"?

I'm with Zoli here: the terminology is close enough that we would call it a ripoff in any other situation; I don't see why InstaColl should get a break.

(FWIW, I blogged about another angle: will InstaColl, Zoho & such shrink the total market?)

[vinnie mirchandani]

Scott, I see your point. From a marketing perspective though, the Avis strategy of "we try harder" - an association with a market leader like Hertz is an accepted one.

By the way, not sure if you saw someone from the Live Documents team commented on Zoli's team and defends the use of the name...

[SR]

Not to sound too critical of the guy, but not much will come of this...a one song wonder is all he is and he's better off putting that money away in a nice hedge fund...rather than watch it burn away over the next 20 years...