In yet another example of CEO Satya Nadella's "new-Microsoft" vision being realized Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced new chat/collaboration app Send (see under for screenshots). The Microsoft Garage creation is available today for US and Canadian iPhone users who also use Office 365 Business and/or have school-tethered email accounts. There's no telling yet provided the app works in an unoptimized state on other iOS powered devices or if it truly is limited to an iPhone launch. Microsoft has said that Send will soon be available for both Windows and Android phones.
I think the launch of Send is both symbolic as well as significant to the overall company. From what I've read so far across the tech blog scene apparently I think this is much, much more meaningful than general consensus. Here's why.
First, isn't it ironic that Send would be available on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) handsets prior to being available on Windows-operated handsets? Is this Microsoft openly addressing its competitive position in the handset market? Or is this, like the new Power BI Summer Update, Microsoft again evidencing itself as being willing to embrace change, innovation, and best of breed even if it means that isn't inclusive of only Microsoft products? I happen to think it's the latter and I happen to continue to think that's productive to the long-term Microsoft bull case.
Moving past that, how big is it that Microsoft has developed a blend-messaging and collaboration product that's optimized for speed and optimized for mobile? Without getting too excited I think the answer is maybe Slack big. That's right, maybe Slack big considering Microsoft's existing scale and infrastructure.
Currently, Slack is the best blended work/play messaging app available across platforms and operating systems. This is usually the consensus opinion and has led to Slack's reported $2.8 billion private valuation. What makes Slack great? Slack essentially acts like a Text Message/Email/OTT Messenger (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), etc.) blend that has collaboration deeply integrated into its use cases.
In Slack I can run multiple chat rooms, or Channels as Slack calls them, that service both consumer and non-consumer needs while also running multiple private messaging conversations and private Channels. Not only that but I have full upload and sharing capacity across dossier and workbook types. Slack is a great app that's an prompt and highly visible value add. If you're not familiar, you should definitely get familiar.
Slack is what I think Microsoft intends for Send to compete with when it's all said and done, meaning when Microsoft has optimized Send several iterations from now. I think this is ambitious and I think this is exactly what Microsoft should be doing¸ throwing down with the best. Especially if Microsoft intends to drop Send into its Power BI and Desktop apps, which I think is the real reason for going live with Send at such an early stage of development. If it isn't the primary reason it's one heck of a secondary reason.
I think Microsoft is taking a page from the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) product development and launch playbook in deploying a just past Beta-development app for public use in an effort to live-test and refine the product. Facebook has done this a number of times in the past with Paper, Poke, etc., and has evidenced how lucrative and effective this can be. Microsoft most recently has done with its BI platform combo Power BI and the formerly named Designer (now called Desktop).
Why do I think Microsoft has any intention of dropping Send into Power BI and Desktop (formerly Designer)? Because in its most new Summer Update for Power BI, which goes live in two days, Microsoft updated Power BI and Desktop to have much improved collaboration - including "support for groups, enabling team collaboration and sharing of Power BI content across job groups" and what I've called a quasi-chat function in which groups can view and share data (presumably remark as well?). As I stated in my Power BI update, quite a bit about the collaboration update is still unknown but my guess is whatever is enabled at this point is just the beginning of something great. I've often opined in articles covering Tableau (NYSE:DATA), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Qlik (NASDAQ:QLIK), and Dell that chatting and collaboration are the unmarried largest lacking pieces to BI.
I believe the larger plan for Send is to develop it into a Power BI chat/collaboration function that is meaningful. Or maybe we'll find out in two days that Send, or a version of it, is already integrated with Power BI as a part of the chat/collaboration update. Maybe Send as a stand-alone app is simply front running the Power BI Summer Update release as a seeding and awareness initiative. It will be interesting to unwrap the new Power BI in two days and find out.
In any case Send, and especially where it came from - Microsoft's internal innovation incubator the Microsoft Garage, shows that Microsoft is back to being innovative and more importantly innovative in a real-time applicable way. Microsoft is looking at ways that it can either create products (as it has done with Power BI and Desktop) or improve on products (as it's doing with Send) that can aggregate broad bases of users. Google has more than a handful of products all with over a billion users (Chrome, Search, Gmail, Maps, etc.) and has turned this wide-net user aggregation into what is seemingly a perpetually expanding market cap and defensibility. Microsoft would do well to follow this strategy.
Microsoft can also greatly further its unmarried most focused on and strategic current initiative of unifying its complete platform as a whole if it can get Send to show traction over time. I explained why this is important to Microsoft prior in stating, "Microsoft has one goal correct now and that's to unify its platforms into one, synergistic, closed-loop ecosystem". Send, if it can show traction, would be an easy to use and device agnostic app that could be a vast new user base introduction funnel into the Microsoft product ecosystem. Again, Microsoft clearly understands that this is a must-do in order to survive going forward and has deployed Power BI and its other SMB/enterprise freemium products in an effort to cover missing ground. So far Microsoft has done this quite effectively I might add.
Most people, especially recently, view productivity as productivity. Instead of reaching for a brand what polling and usage rates are showing is that more and more users are simply picking the best product. If Send can evidence itself to be the Slack-mobile that even Slack to this point hasn't proven it can be or if Send can show to the markets that it being integrated with Power BI is the difference maker in the BI arena that's going to matter in a big way for Microsoft as a whole. Again, at the very least it shows a strategy and a culture shift from our "grandfathers Microsoft" to one that can be much, much more applicable in the new tech normal.
I have great expectations for what Send and think that its progress is something Microsoft investors and enthusiasts should watch. I'll update readers as developments come along.
Disclosure: I am/we are long MSFT, AAPL, FB, TWTR. (More...)I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose inventory is mentioned in this article.
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