October 15, 1996
For Microsoft Corp., a browser is just an element to be ingrained in the operating system. But Netscape Communications Corp. disagrees and this week will announce Communicator, which turns Navigator into a family of tools for groupware, E-mail, authoring, phone calling and, of course, browsing.
The company tomorrow will outline its 1997 ``intranet-centric vision and direction'' road map. Besides Communicator, the company will disclose additions to its SuiteSpot server line and a new open-arms policy toward key technology from arch rival Microsoft, sources familiar with the plan disclosed.
To date, The 2 1/2-year-old Mountain View, Calif., software company has been reticent to embrace Microsoft's ActiveX technology. But that hard line apparently is about to soften, as Netscape pledges to integrate its products with many of the competition's core offerings, including ActiveX and Office 95 and 97, and extend support for SQL Server, Systems Management Server (SMS) and NT System Services, sources said.
Netscape also plans to unveil a Communicator groupware-type client that features five components in the standard version: Navigator 4.0 Web browser (due out by year-end).
Messenger, an open-standards E-mail client that allows users to compose messages in HTML and employ the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol to look up addresses and digital IDs for people inside and outside a corporation.
Collabra, for collaborating with others through discussion and newsgroups.
Composer, a new version of the Navigator Gold Web authoring tool.
Conference, for making telephone calls over the Internet using CoolTalk technology.
Components can be used separately or plugged into other applications.
``Now it's not the browser battle; it's this package of stuff, and the browser is one piece,'' said one industry source. ``Will people migrate toward this componentized suite of applications on top of your desktop? Or will they go the other way and go down into the desktop with Microsoft?'' Microsoft later this year will release a new version of Windows that fully meshes browsing and file management.
The standard Communicator product, with all the new bells and whistles, will sell for $49, the same price as the current Navigator client.
A Professional Edition, which will sell for $79, tacks on calendaring and scheduling, as well as an AutoAdmin management tool for administrators to set user privileges, sources said.
In a neat and tidy fashion, Netscape also will directly match its SuiteSpot 3.0 server line to the different Communicator components, sources said.
For instance, a messaging server will map to the messenger client component. Others mapping to Communicator's collaborative applications will be media (for streaming audio), calendar, Collabra and an enhanced enterprise Web server, sources said.
Rounding out the 10-piece server line will be the catalog, certificate, directory and proxy servers, plus a LiveWire Pro.
Currently, the company's SuiteSpot server software line comprises of a mail, news, proxy, catalog and enterprise Web server. Customers can buy them separately for $995 or any combination of five for $3,995. A LiveWire Pro management tool also can be tacked on for $695.
That pricing will still hold, but Netscape also will institute some per- user-based pricing. SuiteSpot customers that choose any of the collaborative server pieces, that map to Communicator, will get 100 client licenses as part of the package.