Microsoft launches free online Office 2000
In the next few months, the world’s most famous multinational computer technology corporation Microsoft will let its upgraded Office 2010 be free on the Web to help customers process their files online.
Being considered the main money making product of Microsoft, new Office version helps Microsoft fight against giant Google in the battle of releasing Web-based software. Similar to all older versions, Office 2010 also features some major applications like Word, Excel, Outlook and Power Point.
However, this is the first time Office has been launched as free online software. Thanks to it, customers can easily save their files online instead of storing in their own PCs as usual.
If the plan of Microsoft succeeds, enterprises and customers will simultaneously switch to upgraded Office 2010. However, individuals have to wait until June because the new version is now free for enterprises only. According to many experts, with Office 2010, Microsoft will become the exclusive distributor in the office software market once again. At the moment, Microsoft Office has been so popular and convenient that most enterprises just want to use it. Customers who are loyal to Microsoft Office are often middle-aged businessmen. It’s them who help Microsoft expand its empire until now.
Unfortunately, Microsoft’s profits are gradually reducing due to free software released by rivals like Google. Google group’s president David Girouard said that Microsoft Office can no longer support all needed things of enterprises.
The main advantage of Microsoft to compete with other rivals is the number of customers who are loyal to Office
With upgraded Office 2010, customers can use and edit the same files together on the Web. Thanks to this feature, users do not have to send files through e-mail any longer. In the near future, customers can forget the feeling of working alone with their personal computers and get used to cooperating with other people on the Web.
Nonetheless, the online feature of Microsoft Office is not a strange one. Before Microsoft, many famous companies such as Google, Adobe and Zoho have tried this. The only advantage of Microsoft lies in the number of customers choosing Office which reaches 500 million.
According to report, the office software market has been occupied 94% by Microsoft. Following Microsoft is Adobe with the market share of 4%. The rest 2% is divided to other smaller companies. Therefore, Microsoft’s 2009 profits of $19 billion is nothing surprising.
The popularity of Office is what makes it become one of the most worth-competing products in the eyes of Microsoft’s rivals including I.B.M, Sun Microsystems, Oracle with the office software named OpenOffice and Google.
