Microsoft has announced it will discontinue its Encarta product line. Not really a surprise, considering the rise of Wikipedia as a source quality information. But I wonder why they discontinued it already. It might be that this product is ‘hemorrhaging cash’, to use the words of Alan Moore. But we might be witnessing the first skirmishes of a strategic repositioning. Encarta is a high overhead, traditional product. But what low overhead, innovative product will be replacing Encarta? Is Microsoft going to compete with Wikipedia? Or, as they state in their discontinuation notice, are they targeting education primarily? Interesting to note that one of the areas where Jimmy Wales envisions a Wikipedia transformation is education…