A top Microsoft Corp. executive defended desktop application software, the source of the company's revenue for three decades, arguing in a presentation last week that even services-based companies such as Google Inc. still need it.
The comments by Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business applications division, come as Microsoft is trying to position itself as a company capable of delivering applications over the Internet as well as on PCs, its traditional distribution model.
"It's interesting some our competitors who like to espouse the idea that software is dead," said Raikes said. "I think they're worried that actually people like a lot of what they have at their fingertips and the real success is to use a combination."
