Google's War Plan

An insightful note discusses how free apps like the upcoming Google Wave fit into Google's overall strategy. Remarkable for a slashdot comment, the note is worth reading.

The basic outline is that Google is actively trying to drive down the marginal profits on a number of desktop apps. Google's offerings all work independent of platform. If you can change your OS without changing any of the apps you use, then the MS OS monopoly becomes far less entrenched.

This approach is intimately wedded to the ideas expounded by Chris Anderson in his article, Free!, recently expanded to a book, which argues that Moore's Law pushes down the costs of all the digital products we use, and examines the consequences.