Microsoft said on Thursday that it would give away a comprehensive mobile edition of Office. The free software for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets will do most of the most essential things people normally do with the computer versions of the product.
One might ask, why? Why, when these applications represent nearly a third of their revenue (and an even larger portion of gross profits), would they give it away – free?
With free ‘office’ versions available for every class of device from mobile phones to PCs (OpenOffice, LibreOffice), with Apple making their iWork suite available for free with the purchase of new Apple hardware, and with Google’s ‘Home & Office‘ apps available to anyone, anywhere via the web, the pressure was on Microsoft. Microsoft is betting it can get even more people to start using their software, without stealing sales from their PC and Mac versions of the product. This is a big, but necessary risk for the company to take.
I, for one, applaud Microsoft for taking this step. But the real risk to Microsoft is that the line it’s drawing between free mobile versions of Windows and Office and premium versions for PCs will not hold, as the boundaries between devices blur. As tablets evolve to become more serious laptop replacements the case for paying for a premium version of Office could weaken.
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