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What Happens When Microsoft Runs Into Moore's Law | |
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| Time: 11:48 EST/16:48 GMT | News Source: TechDirt | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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With the announcements in the past week or so about HP and Dell offering machines with WordPerfect instead of MS Office, there's been some discussion about what this all means for Microsoft. Business 2.0 has an interesting article that points out that Microsoft is simply a victim of Moore's Law. You can now get a white-box computer for under $400, but Microsoft Office still costs $450, which makes it a tough sell. Microsoft says they're not worried, and they're doing just fine with their current pricing plans. It will be interesting to see if that remains the case over time. Machines are going to keep getting cheaper, and it seems like things like OpenOffice are getting much better. I've been playing around with OpenOffice, and while it's not quite there yet, it's pretty close to removing any need for MS Office for me. | ||
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| #1 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 8/28/2002 12:04:34 PM |
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Why do people still believe that Dell, HP, etc., pay full retail price for Office, or other MS software?
One other thing that just came to mind -- I know that Java on the desktop pretty much sucks in comparison to other alternatives, however, instead of Sun suing MS left and right to get Java back into Windows, why not just make a Java Open/Star Office. I know, you're thinking WordPerfect, but this doesn't have to be a full Java app. Just make some included components use Java (and require Java 2). By doing that, they can require that users of the program install the Java 2 runtime. Every OEM that wants to bundle Star/Open Office has to bundle the runtime, and any end-user wanting to use the latest version of Star/Open Office will have to install the runtime. Even people that normally use MS Office, but want to try out Open/Star Office will end up with the runtime on their computer. Generally, only the more savvy users will uninstall it or not use the Office Suite because of it. This post was edited by n4cer on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 at 12:28. |
| #2 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 8/28/2002 12:26:00 PM |
| What source do you have that "many if not most companies did not get the software assurance for volume licensing"? I've seen no published numbers saying anything about it. |
| #3 By 1913 (136.171.122.17) at 8/28/2002 3:41:33 PM |
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Bob670 ...I'm not trying to defend MS, but when you ask someone or a company to change office suite, it could also cost more money - training and support. Another thing to consider is that users has to get used to the new suite, and that takes time, which equals to less productivity; again ...money and now time being lost here.
You and I can pretty much change OS or office suit without a problem, but you have to think of the users also - most of them don't have the patience to make the change or transition. In fact the place the I worked at just rolled out XP and Office Xp, and the transition was very smooth for the users ...specially with Office Xp. No training for users and support, and no downtime. And yes Microsoft doens't have to worry about there prices because it is the de facto in office suite out there, and if a PC doesn't come with Office, he or she will purchase a copy no matter what just to get the job done. |
| #4 By 531 (64.109.31.212) at 8/28/2002 4:04:49 PM |
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#2 is correct: the formatting of documents, and thus, the portability/file-format of documents from one program to another is a big reason why Office is such a popular suite, IMHO. Many people and companies use Office because others use Office because the document formats are the same, and it's easier to share information.
Things are going to change, it would seem, with the next version of Office. According to different articles I've read, Microsoft is going to make XML the default file-format for it's Office documents. While this will make these files more accessible via Web Services, etc, it will also make the files more open to competing Office suites. No more proprietary file formats... so Microsoft will have to make it very obvious that Office is the best choice in its genre. That, as far as I'm concerned, would logically include a price drop. I'm probably wrong, but it makes sense... |
| #5 By 1896 (65.80.240.76) at 8/28/2002 8:34:00 PM |
| Did the author of the article checked Corel site? The price of WordPerfect 2002 Professional Edition is $489.00. It doesn't seem a cheap price for a product that, in my opinion, is definately inferior compared with Office XP. |
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