Microsoft Office Web Applications are offering a Free Beta for home, school, and small business use.
Here’s how they plan to offer free stuff and still make money according to the NY Times:
Microsoft has said that Office will range in price from a limited, free Web version supported by ads to a full-blown version that costs $500, both to be available to consumers in June. Most analysts say they think Microsoft will hold on to its near monopoly on productivity software. Richard Williams, the senior software analyst at Cross Research, said that most companies would continue to choose Office because it was familiar and safe. “This is not the cycle that will take away from Windows or Office,” he said. “Most of the people calling the shots and paying the bills are in their 40s, and grew up with Microsoft.”
Personally, I like to use resident memory on some items and to have other things available in my computer and other things online in my Google Docs account. But I think this may be worth testing at least.
gabriel collignon on May 20th, 2010 at 11:22 am
wow that is another good thing from microsoft.. more power in serving people..
Andrea Coutu on May 26th, 2010 at 8:43 am
That’s great news. I guess they figured out that a lot of people were switching to open source software and that they needed to address the situation. I know that software is a huge expense for most small business owners.
Catherine Cresser on May 29th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
This was a very generous act for Microsoft. Providing a software for free is something valuable in the field of data processing. Continuous innovation in technological era plays a very distinct and essential role in the accessibility and efficiency programs of deliberating business success.