The Doyle Report: Microsoft Is Embracing New Bundles That Could Render Traditional Product Classifications Meaningless. Rivals Should Be Worried

Stop me if you have heard this before: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is bundling some of its less successful offerings with its best sellers. If you recall, past efforts to do this have transformed the software industry—and wound up getting Microsoft slapped by the U.S. Federal Government.

Is history repeating itself? It may be. Let’s take a look at the latest news.

In Washington this week, Microsoft is hosting its annual partner conference, Inspire. There, thousands of partners, analysts, researchers, vendors and members of the press are huddled to hear the latest form the company. This includes our own Nicole Henderson, who will report from the event all week.

On Monday, Microsoft made several announcements. Satya Nadella opened the event with the unveiling of Microsoft 365, which combines Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security together for as little as $20 per month per user.

Microsoft 365 will come in two versions, one named “Enterprise” and the other “Business.” The former is for large organizations while the latter is tuned to those that top out around 300 users.

Here’s Microsoft’s official positioning:

According to Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office team at Microsoft, the announcement “represents a fundamental shift in how we will design, build and go to market to address our customers’ needs for a modern workplace.”

No question Microsoft 365 is a major advance. But a fundamental shift? In some ways yes, but not in others. Take technology.

Microsoft clearly sees that the lines between an OS and an application or service or utility are blurring. But where it gets even more interesting is in the cloud, where experts argue long into the night about the differences between Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Throw some complex Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings into the mix and you can see why the need for “a fundamental shift in design, build and market” is needed.

This is big news indeed; it could usher in a new era of automation and development. Still unresolved? How will a company charge for value added innovations like the three new apps Microsoft unveiled today? They include:

Will companies charge separately for add-ons like these or merely throw them into the mix to lock-in customers and limit defections?

Now let’s consider marketing.

Bundles? Microsoft has used these quite effectively before. Recall there was a time when customers made separate purchase decisions for word processing applications, spreadsheets and presentation graphics packages. After Microsoft put all three into a single bundle and called it “Office,” WordPerfect and Lotus never recovered. Similarly, when Microsoft argued that an Internet browser should be built right in to an operating system, scores of protests followed. “Anti-competitive behavior” rivals cried. Eventually the Feds agreed.

But in hindsight, wasn’t Microsoft right? And if it is right again, then shouldn’t stand-alone security, artificial intelligence and mobility management companies be worried? I would if I were not innovating.

Make no mistake. Today’s announcements are a big deal—possibly historic. And to make sure they stick, Microsoft has already begun laying the groundwork internally to support its new agenda.

It’s taken other steps as well. This includes the unveiling of “One Commercial Partner,” a new Microsoft program that realigns internal company resources. “We’re bringing together partner-focused teams from across the company into one organization,” writes Ron Huddleston, corporate vice president of One Commercial Partner at Microsoft, in a blog published Monday.

According to it, all of Microsoft’s partner-facing employees will work with partners in one of three different ways. They are, according to Microsoft:

Big news, indeed.