VMW takes a huge drop

Once again the panic begins.
Tell me something Kohalza ... when was the last time Microsoft released something that worked?

I believe that after a fast pre scheduled release of "Hyper-V", the product will suck big time. (remember the Vista story?)

This is a great opportunity to buy VMW. Microsoft release will just pump more energy to already hot sector in technology.

but that's just my 5cents

Another thing to note with respect to VMW is the revenue stream from the esx3i product which ships with HP, Dell and makes the server virtualization ready. This provides a window of opportunity for sales to increase and more enterprise customers trying esx.

Remember, this is Microsoft. A company that stole a few lines of code back in 1982 and cornered the young market on PC operating systems.
Microsoft haven't had a good product roll out since.
Big wig suites on wall street hear Microsoft and panic, but I think we should know better..
I'm NOT selling my VMW holdings, if anything I see this as a buying opportunity... let me guess what will happen next:
Bill gates will showcase the new software at CES and it will crash his OS...
Microsoft will offer it's "partners" the software for $200 a year.. but it still won't work.
I think that what Microsoft is good for, is promoting this new technology and bringing it to the awareness of millions of developers who will check it out and choose VMware because it's better. Sometimes wars are good for the small contender.
It will be interesting following this fight and as always I'm happy to bet against Microsoft... it's the best way to make a buck..

I know it's very fashionable to bash Microsoft, and I'm first in line to criticize the quality of their products. But you need to remember that when Microsoft sets out to kill the competition they usually succeed. Not because their product is better but because of their monopolistic and aggressive business demeanor. There are countless examples of this going back from the days of DOS, where MS-DOS became the leading OS of it time, through Internet Explorer that killed Netscape, Windows Media Player that leads in media players popularity, MS-Office killed rivals such as Lotus, WordPerfect and Einstein and the list goes on.

In short, my message is: "Don't underestimate the power of the dark side."

VMware may yet come out ahead in this struggle, but if Microsoft goes full throttle into combat, I would keep a weary finger on the VMW sell button.

I agree that caution should be exercised, but I think your examples, though correct, are in the past. Microsoft used to be intimidating, no doubt. But let's look at those examples:

Explorer killed Netscape - this is back in the day where it was believed that you could make money from internet browser software.. but these days a few kids at Mozilla came up with a better browser than Microsoft could ever produce, and FireFox is killing Explorer.

Windows media rules the player space but have failed to monetize the situation, while Apple and iTunes are making millions.

MS Office killed lotus - true as well.. but Google Doc's and spreadsheet do the job for most of us and who would dream of using Outlook for e-mail anymore?

I think past trend was real and I think the times are changing.. Microsoft doesn't scare anyone any more.. that's why Gates quit the job and I'm convinced.. and the Vista launch is proof enough to me.. that those boys in Seattle couldn't launch a good product if their life depended on it. First piece of bad news from the product and VMW goes through the roof! it might go up so high that Microsoft will finally consider buying EMC... even better! :)

I tend to agree with kohalza. Unfortunately for VMW, it think MSFT will do an assisanation job on it like they did with Netscape.

Years ago, I thought everyone would drop msft. products for Linux.
It didn't happen even though it is totally superior. What about the apple software? 100% better.

I hope that I am wrong because obviously VMW is vastly superior.

Guliamo is right about Firefox eating into Explorer's territory but Firefox is free. I think one has to pay for VMW (I could be wrong). Free is a great price and that is usually most people's favorite price- that is one reason why Firefox is doing so well.

I wonder if we had to pay for it how successful it would be?

Maybe after the Vista disaster, the IT managers might be thinking differently about a msft. product. Let's hope.

One thing to remember: you gotta have Windows in order to run "Hyper-V", which means that if I want to run Linux and OS-X on the same machine with a virtualization software, Microsoft force me to use windows while VMware is "platform free"

Hi,

As far as the technology is concerned Hyper-V is no match to VMware ESX but when it comes to competition. Nobody can take one on one with MS. When MS stepped into Virtualization it started with MS virtual PC and then Released MS Virtual Server and gave them out for Free. Till that point VMware did not have a free version of its product. It then released VMware virtual server for free.

Now MS has released Hyper-V and is comparitively a good one. But it is not as robust as ESX but it is good enough to run Windows OS on it and majority of the Servers being virtualized are Windows servers. So Hyper-V would certainly give a good run for VMware's money and it might need to bring down the price of its products.

Microsoft is trying to kill VMware with price and ease of use.

Can't they sue Microsoft? Releasing free product is illegal.. then again, Microsoft did it with explorer as well.. but I remember they lost the lawsuit and had to pay Netscape because of it..
I still like VMW as a stock, I think competition will do them good.. but if the market keeps this up, I'll be hitting my sell stops and out of the position.