Microsoft 'Soon' To Launch Beta Of Free Antivirus Product Morro
Engineers at the Redmond, Wash.-based software company are currently testing an early version of the product on its own employees, a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters Wednesday. While the release of a trial version or beta product is anticipated to be sometime "soon," the company fell short of providing an exact launch date.
Microsoft said that altogether, Morro will offer Windows users basic antivirus, antispyware and antimalware features, which analysts said will likely be comparable to low-end or consumer Web security products from Symantec and McAfee. Morro, which will be delivered as a hosted service, is touted as a "real-time antimalware product," designed to protect Windows users against Trojans, spyware, viruses and other online security threats.
Specifically, the Morro application will direct all of the customer's Web traffic to a Microsoft data center for inspection and analysis, and subsequently block the malicious code in real-time as needed.
This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to make inroads in the antivirus market. The software giant launched a consumer antivirus product Windows Live OneCare three years ago, which was a commercial flop at less than 2 percent of the security market share. Microsoft announced in November 2008 that OneCare would be phased out, and the company will officially discontinue its former antivirus offering later this month.
Meanwhile, competing security vendors are not worried about Morro's market debut.
"Microsoft's free product is basically a stripped-down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves," Symantec Consumer division president Janice Chaffin told Reuters. "A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected."
Meanwhile, other competitors have echoed that security vendors need to offer higher-end security products and comprehensive security suites to stay competitive in the marketplace.
"There is a section of the consumer population that will always drift toward free," said Carol Carpenter, Trend Micro's vice president for the consumer business unit, during a Channelweb.com interview. "We've grown our business despite the many, many free offerings. There is value in multilayer comprehensive security solutions. We know that the shift to higher-function suites is where the market has been going."
"I'm not worried about yet another free product," she added.
