Duet Launch News Coverage Review

Here is a brief review of the media coverage for the Duet„¢ launch:

Forbes: Headline – “Gates’ Microsoft Sings Duet With SAP”. “Birds of a feather? With the announcement of a plan to dovetail portions of software to perform quotidian tasks, Bill Gates’ software leviathan Microsoft and German giant SAP are tweeting from the same song sheet…New software called Duet, which debuts June 28 and costs at least $125 per PC.”

Thestreet.com: “Duet underlines the close cooperation between SAP and Microsoft, companies that once discussed a merger, and will now team up to sell, market and support the application when the commercial version is released in June.”
Reuters: “The new product, dubbed “Duet” and formerly codenamed “Mendocino”, is the outcome of a year-long collaboration between the two software giants and will help cement Microsoft’s leading position in desktop software and SAP’s in business software.”

CNET: But the tight integration with Office could sharpen competition between SAP and Microsoft’s Dynamics application division, particularly for smaller firms and divisions within large companies, he said. “This is not necessarily the best thing that’s ever happened to Microsoft Dynamics,” Greenbaum said, noting that Microsoft has focused on close Office integration as well. “(Duet) does undercut Dynamics in SAP’s customer base,” he said.

Financial Times: “SAP is set to announce on Tuesday the completion of an alliance with Microsoft that could extend the reach of its software to millions of new workers through the ubiquitous Office set of productivity tools.”
eWeek: “The courtship between Microsoft and SAP is growing more amorous by the day.”

AMR: “Barring any gaffes on licensing and pricing, AMR Research expects Duet to meet with tremendous success. The requirements for success, however, may involve unprecedented cooperation between two sometime competitors.”