Microsoft: Office to Embrace the Web; One Less Profit Center?

Microsoft (MSFT) made a major announcement today - they will be offering “lightweight” versions of Office applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - through the browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari will be supported. Users will be able to read and edit documents from the browser.

We had guessed earlier this year that Microsoft would choose the Silverlight platform to deliver Office online, but Microsoft will instead be copying the Google approach - the applications will be 100% HTML and Javascript.

This is a bold if belated move for Microsoft, which relies heavily on Office revenues and profits to support its money-burning online business.

Google (GOOG), of course, has been offering online versions of Office documents since they acquired Writely in 2006. Their versions of the applications are not as feature rich as Microsoft Office, but they’re free, easy to use and allow for easy collaboration. Microsoft was forced to respond.

The pricing model hasn’t been announced yet, but Microsoft notes that consumers can currently use Office Live Workspaces for free with advertising. Businesses will likely have some form of a subscription model.

So…free Office from Microsoft, and one less desktop application. For most users this will be more than enough to make the expensive, downloaded version irrelevant. Power users who need advanced features will still buy Office, but that’s a tiny percentage of the overall market.

Original post

Comments

[fredb:]

michael - you're a loser. if no pricing model has been announced - how can you say there's one less profit center? that's a like a new car coming out and you call out it's lack of leather seats before seat fabrics have been announced... whattagoof.

2008 Oct 28 04:06 PM

[Jonathan Scott:]

Your imagination is failing you. What Microsoft is giving away they always gave away. That is, the pirates sold it or your neighbor gave you a copy in return for a free lunch.

2008 Oct 28 04:12 PM

[gokou3:]

"For most users this will be more than enough...."

Dun think so!

2008 Oct 28 04:21 PM

[User 287755:]

At the PDC conference today they discussed how the applications were built using Silverlight - so I think your statement about them being 100% HTML and AJAX isn't correct.

2008 Oct 28 09:00 PM

[steveballmer:]

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2008 Oct 30 06:26 PM

[liarloans:]

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2008 Nov 12 03:00 PM

[justin12:]

i'm still using offline ms office, used it with Hibernater which works great together, bringing my work around on any computer.

2008 Nov 19 10:17 PM