Robert X. Cingely says in the NYTimes today that the Microsoft/Google competition will come to naught:

Yes, Google would love to get a toehold in the netbook and smart-phone markets, especially at Microsoft’s expense. The Chrome OS and Android are both ideal for pushing Google’s net-centric view of computing. But the company worries far more about protecting its current cash cow — search — and says as much when it is unwilling to claim that Android and the Chrome OS will be better for Web-based applications than the platforms they are intended to supplant, which is nominally Windows.

Bill Gates once told me the company that defeats Microsoft hadn’t been founded yet. That is probably still the case. Remember Microsoft was less than five years old when I.B.M. plucked it from obscurity to provide PC-DOS, with Microsoft eventually turning on Big Blue and driving I.B.M. from the PC business entirely.

Some company with a new idea and no legacy products to defend will eventually arise to clean Microsoft’s clock. Or maybe Microsoft’s market will simply disappear as PC’s are subsumed into cars and mobile phones, possibly leaving Windows behind in the process. Whatever happens, it won’t be Google’s doing because Google is too busy defending its own turf to seriously encroach on Microsoft’s.

Today is the invitation-only technical preview of Microsoft’s Office 2010. TechCrunch has seen an in-depth demo by Microsoft’s Office 2010 Group Product Manager, Chris Bryant. They have a complete breakdown of the new functionality, including screenshots. CNet reports that the browser-based versions will have to wait:

Those so-called Office Web Applications are being demonstrated on Monday, but the technical preview of the Web apps won’t come until later this year. For consumers, Microsoft plans to make the browser-based versions a free part of Windows Live next year, but hasn’t decided whether they will include advertising.