IBM Rearchitects The Desktop

Using Workplace Micro Edition, the components can run on mobile devices, while Workplace Rich Client Edition will run applications on thick clients running Windows, Linux and, later this year, Mac OS. WorkPlace Rich Client Edition puts middleware on the client, while the server dynamically pushes out new functionality and content from the server.

For customers using Microsoft Office, IBM will offer desktop components that include Office plug-ins as well as open-source-based editors that are largely compatible for typical users with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. After numerous failed attempts to win back the desktop, IBM is downplaying its strategy with WorkPlace as an attempt to displace Office.

"This is not a competitive battle," says Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive for IBM's Software Group. "We are focused on what customers need and how we can deliver the broadest range of customer scenarios."

Nevertheless, the introduction of the new Workplace tools could have a major shift in the computing landscape, says industry analyst Amy Wohl. "It's the first serious attempt to try to offer an alternative to PC-centric Office as an architecture," she says. While Sun offers its Linux-based StarOffice as an alternative as well, that is also desktop-centric, although Wohl says Sun is readying a server-based version of its own.

IBM's move could also introduce a new model of computing that bridges the old client-server world with thin-client Web-based computing models. The new Workplace tools extend IBM's WebSphere middleware to the desktop and to mobile clients. For example, developers of Siebel and PeopleSoft applications could extend specific functionality that would give individuals access to the application and data, whether online or offline.

Several partners have already announced plans to support the new tool set, including Adobe, Blue Martini, Business Objects, PeopleSoft and Siebel. Customers that plan to deploy the apps include Guardian Life Insurance, Prudential and Whirlpool.

Still, the potential threat to Microsoft can't be understated. If WorkPlace takes off, it could cause major tremors in Redmond. "IBM is saying that the OS really doesn't matter," says David Marshak, senior vice president at the Patricia Seybold Group.

Microsoft looks at it differently. The company likens IBM's embrace of a rich client managed by the server as an acknowledgement of Microsoft's vision of desktop computing.

"They are beginning to come around to our point of view that it takes a client," says Dan Leach, group product manager for Office System at Microsoft. "[But] do you want a generic, run-of-the-mill client that does not do anything robust? Reducing cost and complexity is important, but we do it without taking away a rich client and [user] flexibility."