And just think how much more profitable it would be if everybody actually paid for it instead of getting pirated copies. 47 billion would be pocket change.
And just think how much more profitable it would be if everybody actually paid for it instead of getting pirated copies. 47 billion would be pocket change.
No argument from me on that. Even though I'm a dedicated Mac guy, Office X on the Mac is a good product. Unfortunately for MS, most people are satisfied with Office, so they're having problems getting people to upgrade. Most people don't use a tenth of the features currently available in Office, so they don't care about the new ones.
MS can't continue the level of growth they've made or continue to pour billions into losing propositions like MSN and (so far) the XBox, without the revenue stream from Office.
The growth market isn't big enough to satisfy the company needs without current users upgrading. My college, for example, has about 100 extra Office licenses because of the price benefit of purchasing them in bulk. When we get new computers, we use one of those licenses, and when we replace a computer, we uninstall Office to free up a license. There's no need for us to upgrade unless the campus grows by about 30%. I think a lot of companies are in this position.
Computers are becoming a commodity product, and the level of expense for single stations cannot be maintained for much longer. Just as hardware prices have fallen (10 years ago, nearly $5,000 to around $1,000 now), mature software where the development costs have been recovered cannot continue to maintain the premium prices they have been commanding.