It’s not often that Microsoft Corp announces a major new product initiative and finds it greeted with roars of apathy, but that is pretty much what happened with its Microsoft at Work concept for embedding Windows-derived intelligence into office equipment. But two other major companies, Novell Inc and IBM Corp certainly don’t believe the concept to be a dead one – Novell has just launched its Novell Embedded Systems Technology (CI No 2,597) and now IBM has begun discussions with Japanese majors on its own software standard for linking personal computers and office equipment. Details have not been set, but we expect the participants certainly to exceed 10 firms, IBM Japan told Reuters without elaborating. The Nippon Keizai Shimbun said 15 firms, including IBM, Toshiba Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and Canon Inc, would form an organisation in March to promote the standard, which given the participants sounds as it it is intended to use the PowerPC RISC. The paper said that detai ls of the standard would be announced in May, and the first products using it would likely be introduced in a year or two. NEC Corp, which sells At Work printers and facsimile machines, said it was considering an invitation to join the IBM group.
