RSSMicrosoft to replace Works with ad-supported 'Office Starter 2010'
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published October 8, 2009, 1:20 PM
In a bold new experiment for distributing Office that, quite surprisingly, does not involve Office Web Apps, Microsoft announced this afternoon its plans to let OEMs pre-install the full Office 2010 on new PCs, but enable it to run in a limited format until users purchase their licenses. That format, for the first time, will be ad-supported.
When Office 2010 premieres (the official date is still unknown at this point), a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Betanews, new Windows 7 PCs will be made available through participating OEMs (no list has been revealed yet) that contain, pre-installed, a product that will be known as Office Starter 2010. It will contain partly functional versions of Word and Excel -- or perhaps more accurately, it will appear to contain partly functional versions, because the complete Office 2010 software will be installed on these systems.
Rather than sell upgrade software separately, however, Microsoft will enable retail outlets to sell simple plastic cards containing license numbers, for the various consumer SKUs of Office including Home and Student, and Professional. Customers can enter the numbers from these cards to instantly "upgrade" their software from partly-functional, ad-supported mode to fully-functional, ad-free mode, as well as activate components that were not functional in Starter such as PowerPoint and Outlook.
This will be Microsoft's first venture into the realm of ad-supported commercial local software. Earlier, the company had considered introducing Office Web Apps, at some level, as the replacement for Microsoft Works, the long-extended entry-level software that relatively few people are aware still existed. But conceivably, Starter Edition could give Microsoft a way to more effectively monetize its entry-level software, subsidizing it continually through advertising rather than once only through OEMs. Whether OEMs will even be charged to pre-install Office Starter is doubtful; it's feasible that they may even be given incentives to do so.
However, this may still be seen as a setback for the premiere of Office Web Apps, which up until today was being described as the entry level of Office. More and more, Web Apps is looking like a way for mobile users to obtain and freshen their Microsoft Office documents on the go, which could make the suite less competitive against Google Apps, Zoho Apps, and future entries from Adobe.
Also today, Microsoft announced it will be distributing full versions of Office 2010 online, through a service entitled Click-to-Run. Trial editions of the package will be made available through this service on virtual machines, probably executable through Virtual PC on XP and Vista, and Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7. This will solve the problem that Betanews discovered with the current Office 2010 Technical Preview: Because of the way Office 2007 configuration works, Office 2010 applications in general (not just Outlook) cannot effectively co-exist on the same PC with Office 2007 apps. So anyone trying a future trial edition of Office 2010 in the conventional manner would have to uninstall Office 2007 -- not something folks will have an incentive to do.
On the bad side, a virtual Office 2010 will not be able to co-exist with the customer's current e-mail profile, which will make testing Outlook 2010 more difficult within the virtual envelope. But it will be safer. Microsoft said today that customers of Click-to-Run will be able to purchase Office 2010 directly online, download it, and then install it.
Both Click-to-Run and Office Starter will contribute to Microsoft's efforts to reduce publishing costs, as both methods are no longer reliant upon physical media at the customer end.
Great!
More bundled adware bloat. Now I remember why I purchase custom made computers.
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|I tried the 'click-to-run' version during it's initial test phase and to put it bluntly it sucks!
The software involved is nasty and there is little or no feedback or control over the process so you can't realistically see what is happeneing.
Although the test infrastructure serving the install wasn't fully spec'ed the number of users of the test system wasn't extensive and yet the install took a long time using a standard 8mbit DSL connection (I forget exactly how long but it took but it was somewhere in the region of 30 minutes!).
Once the install was complete I was left with a virtual drive from which the software\install ran an additional set of services that the install was managed by and some other weird system changes that I couldn't avoid.
Thankfully my testing was performed in a virtual environment and so I rolled back to a pre Office 2010 'click-to-run' state on which I then installed office 2010 using the traditional ISO version.
Needless to say, that completed in well under 5 minutes and left me with no freaky virtual drives or other nasty system garbage.
Score: 1
|I still don't understand why people don't download the Office 2003 lite torrent. Right now it's the best office software out there. Office 2007 is too bloated for me. Download here http://bit.ly/2jdK7G
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|so how long until the EU sues MS for bundling Office?
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|Huh... that's a tough one.
I know it's a long shot, but I think it might have something vaguely to do with the fact that Microsoft isn't, in fact, bundling it.
FTFA:
"Microsoft announced this afternoon its plans to let OEMs pre-install the full Office 2010 on new PCs, but enable it to run in a limited format until users purchase their licenses."
Installed by OEMs, not bundled with the OS from Microsoft.
Score: 2
|What a clever workaround. I imagine MSFT won't be lowering the price for OEMs that bundle. No, that wouldn't be bundling at all.
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|Lowered the price of what? The OS? Not legal.
Offer to pay the OEMs to install it? Why do you think the OEMs install all the crapware they do now? Because they are paid to and it lowers the cost of the product to the consumer.
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|As we have seen with Intel and AMD, legality has nothing to do with actuality.
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|Your ability to turn off any semblance of rationality and go for the rhetoric is amazing...
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|Certainly having the "free Office" option actually be Office rather than Office Web Apps (or Works) will reduce the sheer number of people using the online option, but I don't think it will mean that Google Apps wins. If people buy a PC and it comes with Office for free, then they're going to use that and not one of the other free options. So then if they need an online option as well, they'll be more likely to choose the one that looks like their desktop software.
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|Smart move. I've used OpenOffice but like it or not Microsoft Office is still a very strong package. But above all Microsoft knows that the market has changed alot and is responding to it as it should. I only have one thing to criticize over this article. Unlike many think in the industry, Microsoft isn't making an extension of Office in the web. It is building Office for the web. Microsoft's strategy is that you'll have access to a strong online Office application but still have the convenience and power of a client based application. And they'll be completely integrated experiences. Again just like other products, Microsoft is selling us a lifestyle.
Microsoft "idea" is. "Yes you can get great services from different companies but this companies can'not provide the amount of services that we have. Plus they can't give you the integration that we can prvoide".
And frankly, they're right. Only time will tell if they're strategy works
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|www.openoffice.org I love you.
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|Click to Run might be powered by MED-V or App-V. Another question is will Office Starter be so crippled like the Office viewers that even Web Apps will have more functionality?
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|Odd. With OOo out there you'd think they'd have just thrown Works in for free and been done with it...
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|Dude, this STINKS of a MBA driven decision. "Let's find new ways to **** the gullible customer using our ever present OS leverage".
Doncha LOVE that cheap accountant: Ballmer.
Score: -2
|Installed by OEMs.
If they want to install OOo instead, or AbiWord, or nothing, it is completely up too them.
What, OOo can allow OEMs to install their Office Suite, but Microsoft cannot?
Sure, ad supported sucks. Limited trials suck...but they have the right to offer their products (regardless of our opinion of said products) to OEMs just like anyone else does.
Score: 1
|Adware SPAMware in the Live Messenger filth, now this.
OpenOffice please.
Score: -4
|I wounder how long it will be before it cracked.. seems like installing the full version is going to make it easier to use it un-licenced.
Darren
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|Gentlemen, start up your hosts files!
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