Impact of Microsoft's Free WebOffice on Client Apps Revenue

With the introduction of the free web Rosetta Stoneased office applications with Office 2010, which is compatible with all Microsoft suites, Microsoft has joined the band of vendors providing virtual environments, like Google and Zoho. The office web applications enable document accessibility and sharing files online with the help of any web browser. These web based services are provided in three ways – Windows live sky, Share point server and Microsoft online services. Microsoft’s target is to provide a virtual workspace suite to those using netbooks or phone browsers which are not capable of running the full version of Office. Google has gained considerable popularity with its free web suite, and Microsoft, realizing that they might lose their position and clientele to google if they persisted on selling Office 2010, rather decided to provide it free. Rosetta Stone Portuguese However, the free suite is not a complete virtual desktop solution as it has limited viewing and editing features. The full business version with facilities for editing and creating documents has to be purchased. Microsoft’s Office Web Apps is touted to be a big hit since it has extremely competitive features and is compatible with the full version of Office 2010. It may be an uphill task for other vendors to provide highly innovative solutions and also match up with the competitive prices. However, to some extent Google does have a fair number of clientele because of its free cloud based Google Docs, and Zoho has lucrative offers for small and medium sized businesses. Viability of Web Apps Ideally, migrating to a completely web-based Rosetta Stone Spanish Spain online suite is not a very wise decision for enterprises. It is prudent to have a traditional suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office for when users need to run databases and macros. Besides this, the migrating costs and fees applicable to users also have to be considered before taking such an important step. Microsoft is aware of their customers’ reluctance and concerns regarding web enabled management and security of their confidential information relevant to important business decisions. Moreover in order to migrate completely to web-based apps, Microsoft would have to eliminate the desktop operating system and applications. This is not a feasible option because they earn revenue from the licensing fees discount rosetta stone imposed on their desktop programs. Without a substantial alternative to sustain their revenues Microsoft may suffer losses. The popularity of the virtual workspace is gaining momentum and building to a crescendo. Microsoft’s entry with its free Web Apps has leveraged the opportunities to use desktops as a service with probable indications of an intense war in the software sphere.