So when you read through this post one thing is missing. VoIP. So that's where I come in.
When Microsoft purchased Teleo everyone wonder where it would fall into the roadmap of service offerings. First thoughts including mine were as part of LCS, which as an underlying foundation seems to make sense. But remember, Microsoft is to technology products what Proctor and Gamble is to consumer products. They take a great idea that someone else has, blend it into to their product mix and voila, there's something everyone starts using even though other products are better. It's called Mass Marketing and in tech no one does it better than Microsoft.
So when one looks at the idea of a Hosted Office, adds in MSN Messenger, then Teleo's technology (which already integrates with Outlook) one has to begin to get a clearer picture of why Microsoft bought Teleo.
Now, go one step further. While Microsoft has been busy working within the desktop realm for almost it's entire life (save for things like servers and media streaming production) their new partner in the Instant Messaging realm of Interoperability Yahoo has been living in the web based world of service offerings.
Take the two together and you have a potentially very interesting combination that can go well beyond consumer "chat". Yahoo markets very well to their audience their array of Web 1.0 services. Mail, calendar, address book. Yahoo doesn't have any applications that really are "desktop" apps per se, instead offer apps that "integrate" very well with those from guess who? Yup, Microsoft. To that end Microsoft has the device end down pat--PC, Mac, PDA, Smartphones. Starting to see the connections. They also have the largest installed user base of office productivity applications in use today via, pardon the pun, Office.
Creating the "virtual workspace" means the need for a "hosted office" and that also means solving the need of the market. With gas prices skyrocketing here in the USA and the geographic radius that people choose to live who work in tech meccas like Silicon Valley, San Diego, Austin, SF, LA, growing wider by the day, telecommuting, remote working, distance workers will become more and more commonplace.
A hosted solution that does what Office does, in one suite of programs may not be the best in class of any, it will just all work together, and that's where Voice via Teleo comes in right now.