Coming out of the woodwork

Another prediction...

10. Microsoft will increasingly play the patent card when competing with Linux. Although company officials have downplayed the extent to which Microsoft is threatening customers and partners with the risk of patent-infringement lawsuits if they go with Linux, we hear this is an increasingly key piece of Microsoft's competitive strategy. With Microsoft vowing to file 3,000 patent applications during fiscal 2005 alone, we expect the company to rattle the patent sabers even more in 2005.

Some background...

Microsoft has been slowly but surely deemphasizing its Passport digital-identity service for more than a year. But Passport increasingly is being pigeon-holed as a service for Microsoft properties only.

Another definition of the term "long tail"?