David Smith, an analyst with Gartner, says Microsoft was smart to drop ".Net" from the operating system's formal name because the moniker, which is used to label a variety of Microsoft products, has created too much confusion. "They put the name on products that didn't have that much to do with what .Net's all about," Smith says.
In general, .Net has been a marketing term used to signal that a product fits into Microsoft's Web-services architecture. Smith says he'd be surprised if the moniker isn't dropped from some other products as well. Microsoft confirmed Friday that all of its products will be evaluated for possible changes under its new naming convention. "The decisions and timing of name changes for products will be on a case-by-case basis," the company said in an E-mail response to an inquiry.
The name change, Smith says, doesn't mean that Microsoft is rethinking its Web-services strategy. "The company remains 100% committed to Web services," he says. In a related attempt to clarify its branding strategy, Microsoft said last week it will use a ".Net Connected" logo to designate products that "easily and consistently" work together in its .Net architecture.
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Source: InternetWeek
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