A few reports are circulating that Microsoft will offer a free, ad supported version of Microsoft Works, its ‘lite’ office suite, within the next few months. However the kicker is that it won’t be a browser-based offering – as the rumor was back in September 2006. The free version of Microsoft Works will be a desktop app; and Microsoft will go back to its tried and true tactic of pre-installing it on PCs – it’s not known yet which PC makers will be involved. Adverts will run within the programs, including the flagship word processing and spreadsheet apps.
The BBC reports that the service will debut with Version 9.0 of Works, which is due to launch by the end of the year. BBC says that “the ad-supported version will have a store of adverts it will show to people while they put together documents or spreadsheets. The store of ads would be refreshed every time that computer goes online.”
This is just a “trial” that will run until mid-2008. The object is for Microsoft to find out if it can generate enough cash to support such a service. The usual retail price of Works in the US is $39.99, so to be frank this isn’t much of a risk for cash-heavy Microsoft to take.
On privacy concerns, ArsTechnica notes that Microsoft won’t use contextual analysis to place ads, quoting a Microsoft statement that “appropriate ad placement will be based on general Works users demographics.”
Our Take
It’s a little disappointing that Microsoft is not releasing Works as a browser-based suite. OK, Microsoft’s strength is in desktop apps and they want to leverage their Windows stronghold (i.e. tap into PC makers yet again). But making Works available as a free ad-supported desktop suite? It seems like a half-baked solution to the Web Office threat facing Microsoft Office.
Google Apps is improving all the time, although as yet it has a fair way to go to compete with Microsoft Office (the premium office suite, not Works). I use a combination of Google Apps, Zoho and ThinkFree these days to do all my docs and spreadsheets, partly because I am currently using a Mac and for some reason Parallels (which I run Vista on in my Mac) goes very slow for me.
Admittedly there are a number of niggly little things that online word processing and spreadsheets don’t do as well as Microsoft Office. Even so, the fact that I can do word processing and more in the browser on any PC – and share documents and spreadsheets with my workmates and others – that’s the reason I use Web Office products. Microsoft Works as a desktop suite mostly misses out on those benefits.
The reality is that Web Office suites aren’t quite there yet in terms of functionality to compete with Microsoft Office. But they are quickly catching up – and Microsoft doesn’t seem willing to offer any of its office products as a browser-based app. That strategy of sticking with the desktop may well win out in the end, based on Microsoft’s huge market share in office software, but it seems like they’re missing an opportunity to head off Google at the pass here.
It’s like the America’s Cup, where two yachts enter a tacking duel and both go in separate directions. Who will come out on top? It depends on vagaries like wind shifts and other weather factors. In other words, the environment. But usually the safe tactic is for the leader to cover the other boat, by tacking the same way as them. I would’ve expected Microsoft to do that too – to at least match Google in browser-based office software.
The ever-changing office environment will play a big part in office software over the next few years – which way will the winds blow? Will Microsoft regret letting Google go off in a new direction with Office software, without covering them?
Image: cruadinx
