Today Microsoft announced that they are going to start offering free anti-virus/spyware/trojan/rootkit protection for consumers. This is going to have a massive impact on the consumer AV market.
Think about it. You are a consumer. You just bought a new PC. Do you go spend 50 to 80 dollars on Norton or McAfee or do you download the free Microsoft solution? Most consumers are going to take the free option.
Now the question is – will the Microsoft solution be any good? I think it will be decent. Not great, not terrible, but decent. And for the average consumer who is currently running no protection at all because they do not want to pay for it, decent is a massive improvement over nothing.
The companies that will be hurt the most are the ones targeting the consumer market. Symantec and McAfee are going to feel this one. The enterprise market should be relatively unaffected since businesses need centralized management, reporting, and compliance features that a free consumer product will not provide.
This is a good move by Microsoft. They created the problem by building an operating system that is so easily compromised. The least they can do is provide free basic protection.