To-MORRO-w

Posted on November 18, 2008

Well, not really tomorrow, how about the middle of next year? That’s the timeline Microsoft has given for the release of their new program called MORRO which is a free application designed to protect PCs from viruses and other bad stuff.

We said FREE? That’s right, big M, accustomed to offering nearly all paid apps, is going to release something (hopefully very useful) , that doesn’t have your pocketbook attached. This is a big departure for them, but they cite an entirely altruistic motive — they just want people’s PCs protected. Currently, they are offering subscriptions to their Live OneCare for around $50 a year, if I remember correctly. This program will be discontinued after the release of MORRO.

The statistics are out there that an overwhelming number of users still don’t have adequate protection on their computers. Well, most of them did, but don’t now. I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me to work on their computer and the first thing I see after boot up is ‘your McAfee security package is out of date’ or some such. Most newer computers come with some sort of virus software on them, either McAfee or Norton, but only for a 90 day trial. My experience is that very few users follow up by subscribing. They probably figure they just bought a new computer and don’t want to spend another $75 or so on it so soon afterward.

So how will this move by Microsoft affect Symantec and McAfee, along with another handful of leading anti-virus firms like Kaspersky and AVG? Well, it certainly has the potential to close some of them down. Reality is it all depends on how good the program is when compared to the others, how well Microsoft supports it (will they have the extensive online information the others do?), and whether this is really a baseline program with an upsell to a more complete version (like AVG offers for free). Also, the two largest companies (S&M) may fare the best, having such entrenched user and dealer bases, that they may weather the storm.

Jury is out. We’ll be anxious to see what the product offers and if there are strings attached.