It's done wonders for their stock price...
Posted on 07/13/2009 2:33:02 PM PDT by null and void
Microsoft Corp will release a free version of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, catching up with products that arch rival Google Inc launched three years ago.
The world's largest software maker will offer a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and a note-taking program with the same look and feel of their counterparts in the Office suites that it sells for personal computers.
It is the latest salvo in an intensifying war between the two technology giants. Google announced plans last week to challenge Windows with a free operating system. Microsoft introduced a new search engine, dubbed Bing, last month, that has taken a small amount of market share from Google.
A free version of Office could hurt sales of Microsoft's top-selling and most profitable business unit. One of Office's most popular titles is a home version that sells for $150. It includes the four programs that Microsoft will give away.
"Microsoft is in a tough spot. Their competition isn't just undercutting them. They are giving away the competitive product," said Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester Research.
The Office division rang up operating profit of $9.3 billion on sales of $14.3 billion in the first three quarters of the software maker's current fiscal year.
McLeish said she expects Microsoft to overtake Google in the market as the hundreds of millions of people who use Office flock to try out the Internet version.
Microsoft will seek to make money by using it to lead those users to its ad-supported websites, including the Bing search engine. Analysts have said that Bing's early signs of success suggest Microsoft may be rounding the corner in efforts to turn around its money-losing Internet division.
Microsoft will release the free offering when it starts selling Office 2010, it next major release of the product, sometime in the first half of next year. Its current version came out in January 2007.
The software maker unveiled an early release on Monday at a conference for business partners in New Orleans. It will be distributed to tens of thousands of testers.
Company spokeswoman Janice Kapner said the free Web version will provide "a very rich experience" and probably have more functionality than Google.
Office 2010 is among a wave of upgrades to Microsoft programs planned over the next year. A new version of its ubiquitous Windows operating system is coming out in October and a new version of its widely used email server is also in the works.
Microsoft also plans two other Internet versions of Office for businesses.
It will host one of them at its own data centers, charging a yet-to-be-announced fee for that service. Businesses with premium service contracts will have the choice of running the Web-based version from their own data centers at no extra cost.
Sun Microsystems has been offering free office programs for years!
I love competition!
I want my Word program to work... it doesn’t
Friend of mine who runs a small business had been using Microsoft Office for years. Problem was when he bought a new computer last year, it didn’t have MSO installed on it. So I downloaded OpenOffice and installed it for him. He’s been tickled pink because all his documents that he created in Office open properly in OpenOffice without extra add-ons or plug-ins.
Google operates by selling advertising placement.
Microsoft by selling????
Advertising placement
OEMs
Corporate contracts
Software
Subscription based services
Xbox
Games for xbox
Hardware
Not sure what you mean with the ???
Several years ago, the Microsoft Office I'd bought and paid extra for repeatedly crashed my laptop. The last straw was when a paper I wrote corrupted due to a bug in Office, and all of my work was lost.
I started using Star Office/Open Office at the suggestion of a friend, and have never looked back. I have used it on a PC, on my Mac, and now on my Linux laptop.
I have gone out of my way to avoid MS products on computers, phones, gadgets, etc. and have done just fine.
There is literally nothing Microsoft could sell or even give away that I would take or want.
The only problem I had with Open Office was MS kept tweaking MSOffice so that OO wouldn’t open gracefully.
“DOS isn’t done until Lotus don’t run...”
Agreed. It's about time for microsoft too
You'll be able to read, but it will not allow you to edit or save anything. lol
Yup. And they are one step away from being dead and buried.
Nah. You just won’t be able to format any document in anything but what Word thinks is the right format for that document...
LOL. There are already programs out there that do just that.
if microsoft gives away their product for free, what are they actually making a profit?
Google is using thier office product as a cracker jack prize in order to sell ads. (ala network TV thinking they can provide free situation comedies and sell ad space)
It's done wonders for their stock price...
Considering the decades of ugly and predatory business practices inflicted by Micro$oft upon the computing community, not to mention their generally arrogant corporate attitude, the fact that someone is gnawing on their entrails fails to arouse any sympathy in me.
It’s time for a change.
I fail to understand why so many conservatives, who should be supporting free market capitalism, are so down on Microsoft.
Google is a cash rich company that is already using their $$$ to support the new liberal fascism. Their founder/CEO is an Obama insider and adviser. We should be putting our 'clicks' elsewhere...if you must use Google, don't click on the official ad sponsored search result...there is always a non-ad link directly below it.
Google is the new MSM...fight them now. Microsoft is much more benign politically.
Another subscription based service they provide is the Zune Marketplace, where you can download songs for 99 cents and full-length full-season TV shows for $16.
My thinking is, you'll be able to open and edit, you won't be able to save without clicking on a "Buy It Now!!" type of button.
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