[ossig] Rivals make run at Microsoft Office - Software - News - ZDNet Asia

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http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62032392,00.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnd

*Rivals make run at Microsoft Office*
By Martin LaMonica 
<mailto:zdnews-asia at cnet.com&Subject=Feedback%20on%20%27Rivals%20make%20run%20at%20Microsoft%20Office%27>, 
CNET News.com
Wednesday, September 19 2007 11:57 AM

* After years of watching Microsoft rake in billions of dollars from its 
desktop software franchise, its competitors are pouncing. *

IBM on Tuesday announced the release of Lotus Symphony, a suite of free 
desktop applications based on the OpenOffice.org open-source product.

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The computing giant, which has been challenging Microsoft's desktop 
dominance for years 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39246962,00.htm>, 
said that Lotus Symphony is a standards-based alternative to Microsoft's 
proprietary Office.

Separately, on Monday afternoon, Yahoo said that it paid US$350 million 
to acquire Zimbra, a start-up that developed a Web-based e-mail and 
collaboration package comparable with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.

Meanwhile, Google on Monday introduced Google Presentations, an online 
version of Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation application that 
complements Google's Web-hosted document editor and spreadsheet.

The flurry of investment in productivity software points to technology 
and business changes in the IT industry that are making Microsoft's cash 
cow vulnerable to alternatives, particularly among small businesses and 
consumers.

But don't expect Microsoft coffers to start draining tomorrow. Analysts 
expect Microsoft to retain the great majority of its Office customers as 
it adjusts its product development to the Web 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62010621,00.htm> and 
open source 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39350222,00.htm>, 
even as competitors try to siphon off its Office revenue.

"I think there's some blood in the water between Microsoft not getting 
its Open XML (Office document formats) fast-track standards approval and 
the European Commission ruling," said Michael Silver, an analyst at 
Gartner, referring to two recent Microsoft setbacks.

Microsoft failed to get its Office Open XML formats certified as ISO 
standards through its accelerated process earlier this month. On Monday, 
the European Commission ruled in favor of regulators in an antitrust 
case <http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62032333,00.htm> 
that could change how Microsoft does business in Europe.

Microsoft has shown some signs of reacting to the full-court press it's 
seeing from competitors.

Last week, it made a version of its Office suite available to students 
for US$60. It is also developing Office Live, a set of online services 
that complements Office and is aimed at small businesses.

A Microsoft spokesman on Tuesday said that Office meets its customers' 
needs because the company continues to invest in it.

"Competition is good for the industry and good for customers. That said, 
Microsoft Office continues to be the overwhelming choice for a broad 
range of organizations and individuals," said Jacob Jaffe, director of 
Office at Microsoft. "Microsoft Office has changed as people's work has 
changed, and the alternatives for the most part have aimed to meet the 
needs of the past."

* Low-risk volley *
IBM on Tuesday offered up beta versions of the Lotus Symphony 
applications--a document editor, spreadsheet and presentation 
program--to end users and business customers for free download.

The applications run on Windows and Linux, and a Mac version is planned.

IBM executives said that the company's backing of OpenOffice-based 
software and the open-source project is similar to its decision in the 
1990s to push Linux into businesses.

For support, the company is pointing its customers to online forums on 
its Web site <http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa>.

But company observers expect IBM to start to make paid support services 
available to large customers.

For IBM, which makes about half of its revenue from professional 
services, pushing into desktop software with Lotus Symphony is a 
low-risk way to try to upset the balance of power using standards as a 
lever, said Stephen O'Grady, an analyst at RedMonk.

"If (Lotus Symphony) destabilizes Microsoft's Office business, that's a 
huge win and the potential risk for IBM is essentially nil because it's 
not a business where they are competitive anyhow. And it won't 
cannibalize any of its own products," O'Grady said.

Realistically, Lotus Symphony applications don't have the same advanced 
features found in Microsoft Office.

IBM said the programs are designed for ease of use and to be easily 
integrated with other applications. In addition, IBM made pains to point 
out that the programs support OpenDocument Format, or ODF, a standard 
document format. They also will work with Microsoft Office documents and 
Adobe Systems' PDF.

Stripped-down productivity applications could have an appeal in some 
corporate computing situations, such as small businesses or companies 
that don't want to pay a full Office license for employees who rarely 
use the suite, some analysts said.


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