Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY)

[Orion Nebula]

It is intriguing to speculate about the interactions between the large players in this space and how Sphere 3D might fit into some of those interactions. Here is an article Michael Keen posted on Twitter that opines that Microsoft is trying to turn Google and others into "dumb pipes" with an eye toward being an overlord in the cloud.

A key quote:

"Microsoft may be moving beyond simply offering its own services on rival platforms like iOS and Android. What apps such as Acompli and Sunrise can do is let the company reach across cloud services with its own intelligence, essentially becoming the mega-service that sits on top."

While sitting there on top of everything, Microsoft wants to mine data and offer new services based on what they can get out of the dumb pipes. These companies are something else!

Seems there is a role here for Sphere with a cloud protocol that can access all the dumb pipes while avoiding the expensive rewrites Microsoft is now doing with some of their existing programs for the different operating systems as mentioned in the article. Also makes me think of that Microsoft agreement in a new way, that is, from the viewpoint of Microsoft instead of Sphere.

I always get confused about the licensing implications of such turf wars. Also, it is interesting to read the comments following the article as some feel this strategy is a fail from the start. And these comments intertwine security and other issues that are hard to understand as to their implications if this really the strategy Microsoft wishes to pursue. But as I see it without theses confounding factors, that is, in a world based on ubiquitous access and efficiency, Sphere would be a winner with the approach laid out in this article.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3042112/app-economy/microsofts-new-app-strategy-turning-google-into-a-dumb-pipe