Microsoft Office Gets BIG Sales Boost in Live Documents
The latest would-be Microsoft Office killer’s BIG problem is not a “1% one,” as rival Zoho proposes. The big, BAD Office conundrum it is that in order to hurt Microsoft, underdogs must first ”embrace” it.
The word is out, so “reports” TimesOnline:
Sabeer Bhatia released a free online rival to the bestselling Office suite of applications that will allow users to view, share and edit documents from any computer.
The Times’ “word” is not the right one though.
First off, Bhataia’s company, InstaColl, has NOT released anything. “Live Documents is currently available in a technology preview mode on an on-invitation basis. To request an invite to this private beta…,” is what the company is actually announcing.
Most importantly, InstaColl’s Live Documents presents as indirectly promoting MORE SALES of the “best selling Office suite of applications,” aka Microsoft Office, rather than “challenging” Microsoft’s billions in sales.
Bhatia’s anti-Microsoft PR bravado is in contradiction with InstaColl’s real world description of its perhaps soon to be (really) released product.
The Bhatia SPIN:
We are just a few years away from the end of the shrink-wrapped software business. By 2010, people will not be buying software. This is a significant challenge to a proportion of Microsoft’s revenues.
The InstaColl value proposition, however, hailing how it “embraces and extends” Microsoft Office (sales):
Live Documents gives you a familiar user interface - that of Microsoft Office - so that there is nothing new to learn. Through a simple, unobtrusive plug-in, Live Documents bridge the productivity gap between desktop applications such as Microsoft Office and the Web. Use your existing desktop Office application–Microsoft Office currently and shortly Open Office–as a smart client that permits offline access to your document.
Moral of the prospective Microsoft Office killers stories? NOT “can’t live with them, can’t kill them” BUT: WILL LIVE HAPPILY WITH THEM, SO WE CAN HOPEFULLY KILL THEM!
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