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(Via Neowin) MsgAddict reports that Microsoft is get ready for a restricted beta of ts beta of Windows Live OneCare Family Safety:
Microsoft has begun to send out Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Beta invitations to members of the Windows Live Butterfly team, who will help to evaluate and test the new application.
If the name is unfamiliar, it’s because it looks like Microsoft has rebranded Windows Live Family Safety Settings, their parental control freebie.
Jupiter Research’s Joe Wilcox points to a blog posting by Alex Eckelberry of security software vendor Sunbelt Software that crunches the numbers for Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare and Antigen enterprise security products and concludes that Microsoft practices predatory pricing:
I don’t often write pieces lambasting Microsoft. I have close friends who work for the company (incidentally, some of the brightest people I know), my company is a Gold Partner and we’re also in business with Microsoft. And, I am one of those who believe that the computing world has actually been made a better place by Microsoft.My beef is never with the people. My beef is with a number of strategic decisions that have been made by the company that should scare a lot of people. So please, to my friends at Microsoft, don’t take this personally. This stuff just needs to be said.
It’s bad enough that Microsoft is getting in to all aspects of security. But now they are going to kill their competition through predatory pricing.
Hit the link for the calculations, but for Windows Live OneCare, his conclusion is that it is “almost 50% below the market leader, and no one has said a peep.” That seems somewhat overheated since the OneCare MSRP of $49.95 for three machines is easily its most notable aspect and has received quite a bit of comment here and and quite a few other places. It’s also overshadowed by the oddities of the delivery mechanism for consumer security products which generally appear as a trial offers preinstalled on new PCs and based on adoption statistics, seem to be mostly ignored.
More telling is his analysis of the pricing for Microsoft’s Antigen enterprise security products:
Now, let’s move to the enterprise side, specifically virus protection for Microsoft Exchange. Remember that enterprise sales are the bread and butter of companies like Symantec and Trend. This is where the money is made.Examine the latest pricing for Microsoft Antigen, the old Sybari product re-branded under Microsoft’s new Foreforont line of security products.
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As we can see here, Microsoft has priced themselves over 60% less than Symantec, an astonishing difference in price. Microsoft has effectively low-balled the entire antivirus industry in one fell swoop. And their product includes five antivirus engines, not just one.
There’s much more there, but here’s a closing thought:
What should be disturbing about of this all is that we very well might see Microsoft owning a majority in the security space. Despite what their PR flacks tell us, they are hell-bent on getting your business. Look at the Forefront website for yourself. These people mean business. Maybe I’m jaded, as I’ve spent most of my career working for companies that got pummeled by Microsoft (Borland, Quarterdeck, etc.).Stifling innovation? You bet. What venture capitalist will invest in the next great security idea or product? What entrepreneur will start a new company in the security space, given the risks of competing with Microsoft?
And it’s not just startups. For example, after Microsoft announced the acquisition of Giant Company, a senior executive at a major security company told me that they weren’t going to bother coming out with antispyware functionality, since Microsoft had already made that product free. While that company has since changed their mind, it was a chilling conversation.
As I’ve mentioned before in regards to Windows Defender (antispyware), Windows Live Safety Settings, and application transfer applications, there’s no more predatory pricing than free and I can’t help but believe that Microsoft’s heading for another confrontation with antitrust regulators around the world.
Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to offer a new safety service, called Windows Live™ Family Safety Settings, as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to help protect families online through user education, industry cooperation and technology innovation. Family Safety Settings is being designed to go a step further than traditional parental controls and will help consumers better guard themselves and their families against online content and communications they might find inappropriate.
The service will help enhance customer safety by making family protection tools free, widely available and flexible through the Web-based Microsoft® Windows Live service, complementing related technologies from Microsoft, such as family settings to be available in Windows Vista™ that will help families customize their experience with both PC- and Web-based protection. Family Safety Settings will include content filtering for the Web, contact list management tools for communication services, and online activity reports. Service features will begin rolling out in phases worldwide throughout 2006 and will become available to customers using Windows® XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista.
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Family Safety Settings is currently in limited, private beta testing in the United States. Web content filtering and reporting capabilities are expected to be available to Windows Live customers in select U.S. and international markets in early summer with added contact management functionality rolling out later this year. Those wanting more information should visit http://ideas.live.com, or sign up for the Windows Live Family Safety Settings waiting list by e-mailing fssalert@microsoft.com.
There’s also a press Q&A here. This is mostly as rumored with the addition of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) providing age-based guidelines. As I observed previously, say goodbye to the existing players in this niche. The real question is whether there will be a need to say hello to any antitrust watchdogs.
LiveSide has the skinny on the beta of a new Windows Live service called Windows Live Family Safety Settings:
Family Safety Settings is an easy-to-use parental control application that is designed to monitor, control and filter online activity. By creating specific accounts for your children, you can view activity reports showing what websites they have visited and adjust their content filters accordingly.
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The technology behind this service is similar to the Windows Vista Family Safety feature…
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Beta invitations were being sent out yesterday for this upcoming Windows Live service, which goes by the codename “Vegas” (think Sin City).
Hit the link for more including a screenshot, but despite the praiseworthy objective, a couple of observations immediately come to mind.
First, this is yet another odd candidate for the “Live” moniker. The way these personal filtering programs work is that they install on the user’s machine and get periodic updates of Web site ratings, much like an antivirus program. There’s no Web 2.0 or Web interface of any kind in the deal. Chalk it up as some more “Live” branding confusion.
The second observation lies in the above phrases “these personal filtering programs” and “like an antivirus program.” The personal filtering business already has numerous established players like CYBERsitter, Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, and more which seem to provide equivalent functionality to the proposed Microsoft offerings. Some like CYBERsitter don’t charge for the periodic updates, others generally do, but it looks very similar to the Windows antivirus software market and it’s a popular category:
More than half of U.S. families with online teens use filtering programs, with more than 12 million copies of such software in use, according to a study conducted last year by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The report indicated that use of filters in U.S. homes grew 65 percent from four years earlier, as children logged on to the Web in ever greater numbers and the online porn industry continued to flourish.
There’s no word on how much Microsoft is going to charge (if anything) for Windows Live Family Safety Settings or Vista’s Windows Family Safety, but the 800 pound gorilla just showed up and it doesn’t look good for the little players, particularly with the Vista bundling. If the antitrust regulators are getting antsy over OneCare, they ought to get pretty excited over this one.
