As the battle between Microsoft and Google for the future of software takes on new dimensions, JOHN HARRIS asks what this clash of the titans means for consumers

It’s on for young and old as young bull Google charges the bloody champion Microsoft.

Last year, Google launched the Chrome browser for PCs and Android operating system for mobile phones, challenging Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser and Windows for Mobile software.

Last month, Microsoft unveiled its Bing search engine in a tilt against Google’s supremacy.

Google responded by announcing it will release next year a free version of its Chrome software, as an operating system for personal computers.

The threatening part of that sentence for Microsoft is “free” because the world’s largest software company still pockets a fair bit of coin from its Windows franchise.

In fact, it is hoping to top up the piggy bank later this year with the October release of Windows 7, the long-awaited successor to the lamentable Windows Vista.

While it may take years for the Chrome OS to seriously challenge Windows’ hegemony of more than one billion installed computers, tides can turn quickly in technology.

Microsoft’s overthrow of IBM’s long-held dominance of the technology sector is a case in point.

Fresh after Google’s announcement, Microsoft revealed will launch a free Web-based version of its popular Office software next year.

The company will also compete directly with Google Docs by launching a fee-based, network version aimed at business in the first half of 2010.

This online assault on Google Docs will coincide with the release of the regular Office 2010 suite.

So what are the benefits to consumers of this head-to-head competition between Google and Microsoft in search engines, operating systems for phones and PCs and even for application software?

One thing I hope for is lower prices. Microsoft has used its market dominance during the past two decades to retain and even increase punishingly high prices for its software.

When I first bought a computer, it cost me $5000. Today, I can buy a contemporary equivalent for less than $1000. However Microsoft’s operating software and application programs cost me the same or even more than it did then.

However the red hot innovation is coming online, from companies like Google and the open source software community – for a fraction of the price that Microsoft charges.

As computing power increasingly moves from the personal computer to the network – so-called cloud computing – Microsoft’s control of the PC becomes less convincing.

Devices like smartphones and netbooks are pushing that move to the “cloud” – which threatens to rain on Microsoft’s parade by easing the pain in our pockets.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. www.johnharris.net.au

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