• Financial Times, Monday, July 13, 2009 10:41 AM

The rivalry between Microsoft and Google will heighten yet again this week as the former announces final plans for a "cloud" operating system designed to extend Windows to the Internet. The PC OS that Google announced recently is not due until the second half of 2010; Microsoft's cloud OS will launch this year, Richard Waters reports.

Microsoft's Stephen Elop reiterated that aim was to extend the ways it offers its software to customers. Most analysts believe a stripped-down online version of Office will appeal to a relatively small market and not cannibalize its core business.

Microsoft will also launch plans for its Internet-based OS called Azure, which will allow it to "leapfrog Google in the business of selling computing resources over the Internet," Waters writes.

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