He wishes the Microsoft suites would be licensed and billed in the "all inclusive" model of rival Google Apps. The Google suite costs US$50 per user, per year, or, alternatively, $5 per user, per month. Hyatt almost picked Google Apps over BPOS, ultimately deciding against it in large part due to users' historical familiarity with the Outlook email client. "It was almost a coin toss between the two," Blake said.

Instead, Office 365 has multiple versions at different prices with different mixes of components, and as Hyatt looks ahead at transferring to it from BPOS, Blake finds the licensing scenario annoyingly complex, calling the many versions of Office 365 "crazy" and "foolish."

"With Google Apps, it doesn't matter how many trips to the buffet you make, you're good to go. Microsoft on the other hand segments the salad bar, the starches, the meat, and you have to say, 'did I remember the meat? The starch?' And if you forgot the salad, then you need to pay another license fee for that," Blake said.

Explorer and Windows Phone

In development along with Windows 8 is the next version of the browser, IE 10, which, according to Microsoft, is designed to be "edge-to-edge fast" with "less browser and more Web." It will offer two different interface experiences -- Metro-style and traditional Windows desktop. IE10 is being designed to take advantage of hardware acceleration features; supports HTML5, CSS3 and other Web standards broadly; and will be more secure than its predecessors, Microsoft has said.