BeerFiles is a sometimes irreverent blog concerning all things to do with IT, technology, people and the media from the point of view of a hard boiled technology journalist and commentator. Stan has been in the IT game for about a quarter of a century. He has seen and written about the rise and fall of more than a few IT players and made many friends, some of whom he has even crossed swords with on occasions. Everything in this blog is purely Stan’s opinion so if you agree, wish to expand upon, correct a post or tell Stan he’s a clueless know nothing, please feel free.

Microsoft Works going free online poses dilemma

by Stan Beer

Saturday, 23 September 2006

Page 1 of 3 Mindful of the looming threat posed by Google's growing stable of free online office productivity tools, Microsoft is considering putting its own low-end desktop applications online. However, moving to a free software model poses serious problems for the paid desktop software king. Featured Whitepaper 5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support According to a Reuters report, Microsoft is considering making its low-end office productivity suite Works a free online package supported by advertising. By taking Works online, Microsoft would hope to counter the emergence of free online AJAX-based office software packages, such as Google's Writely, Spreadsheet, and Calendar, which have a similar level of bare-bones functionality. Microsoft currently charges US$50 for Works but it is a relatively minor part of the US$12 billion in revenues that the company rakes in each year from Office desktop sales. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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