Update: Microsoft Introduces New Internet Products

Updated from 4:01 p.m. EDT

Microsoft(MSFT) announced a bevy of new Internet initiatives Thursday aimed at transforming the company's wildly popular software and operating systems into Web-based services for personal computers and wireless devices.

The new products and services, known collectively as Microsoft.NET, is the formal name for the "next-generation Windows services" that have often been mentioned by Bill Gates, the company's chairman, and other executives.

Speaking at the company's Forum 2000 conference at its Redmond, Wash. headquarters, Gates ran through the company's plans to eventually make the company's popular software, including Word and Excel, and existing Web services including the Microsoft Network more interchangeable and universally available to computers and other devices via the Internet.

"Our goal is to move beyond today's world of stand-alone Web sites to an Internet of interchangeable components where devices and services can be assembled into cohesive, user-driven experiences," Gates said.

It is unclear how Microsoft's new Internet plan will be affected by a federal judge's ruling earlier this month ordering that the company be split into two entities and have its business practices restricted for violating antitrust laws. That order has been stayed pending Microsoft's appeal.

But if Microsoft ultimately loses its appeal, the company would most likely have to rethink the Microsoft.NET plans. First, a restriction of Microsoft's business practices would probably prohibit the company from integrating such a large group of software and services. In addition, several of the plan's key components would become products of separate corporate parents if Microsoft were broken up.

Microsoft did not give an exact timetable for all of the new software and services, and did not say how much the company is paying to develop the new initiatives.

The company said Microsoft.NET will be based on a relatively new set of Internet standards known as Extensible Markup Language, or XML, and Microsoft will make certain tools available so that third-party software makers can build new applications that work seamlessly with its new infrastructure.

"Our guiding principles have always been about empowering individuals and creating opportunities for the industry," Gates said in a statement. "We are now taking that strategy to a new level by building a new platform based on Internet standards."

For consumers and businesses, Microsoft.NET will introduce a variety of ".NET" software and functions integrated through the Internet. The backbone of the plan will be Windows.NET, the next generation of the company's Windows operating system, slated for release in 2001.

Other new .NET software and services will include MSN.NET, which will combine the content and services of the company's Microsoft Network, a service that delivers news, information, online shopping and other content. The company also plans to build a number of new premium .NET applications that will build on existing Microsoft consumer software in the area of entertainment, games and education. And Office.NET will offer portable and more integrated versions of Microsoft's popular Office programs such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint for use on various devices inside and outside offices.

Microsoft's shares fell 13/16, or 1%, to 79 7/8.

Separately Thursday, Microsoft and prosecutors filed papers to the Supreme Court setting the pace of the software company's appeal of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's antitrust decision. The schedule, which sets briefing deadlines about three weeks earlier than the court-required deadlines, could bring the appeal to fruition by the end of the summer if the Supreme Court decides to hear it.

The schedule calls for Microsoft and prosecutors to file their first briefing to the Supreme Court on July 26, earlier than the court's official deadline of Aug. 14. The Court would then respond to appeals arguments on Aug. 15 and Microsoft would file any last response on Aug. 17, according to Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan.

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