Microsoft Works 9 Frenzy Overblown: What ‘Free, Ad Supported’ Really Means
Can Microsoft really make a free product free? NO!
Why then has so much virtual ink been spilled about a ballyhooed Microsoft intitiative supposedly turning its Works giveaway productivity app into a “free, ad suported” office suite product?
Because a Microsoft WILL go after Google Apps angle makes for great copy! Who needs reality.
Despite Microsoft’s good college try to stamp a retail price sticker on its low end Works collection of desktop apps, however, it is no secret that Microsoft’s delivery model makes it a free to the consumer software product that arrives bundled with purchase of a Windows PC.
Because Works is already “free,” the news isn’t that Works “goes free,” it is actually that Microsoft is looking for ways to START making users PAY for Works!
As it stands now, a proud new consumer owner of a Windows PC generally is by default also the proud, new owner of the latest version of Works, AD-FREE!
There is NO value-add then for consumers if Microsoft adds ads to its previously ad-free Works! After all, Microsoft Works “free AND ad-free” is better for users than Microsoft Works “free AND ad-supported”!
The Works 9 SE OEM “pilot” Microsoft has in the works not only turns a no-strings attached free to the consumer product into a Microsoft advertising delivery mechanism, it is designed to drive upsells to paid (ad-free) versions of the product.
YES, Microsoft is ingeniously, and successfully, spinning a hoped for move from a free Works to a paid Works as a new, “free, ad-supported” Works!
What a piece of Microsoft Work!