Microsoft;s subsequent edition of its small-business/home productivity suite, because of imminently, is going to be free of charge and ad-funded.Microsoft Functions nine.0 — which will probably be the new product;s name, if Microsoft opts to stick with its current nomenclature — may possibly also debut at some point as Microsoft-hosted low-end productivity service, as many have been speculating. A hosted edition of Works would give Microsoft a head-to-head competitor with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and other consumer- and small-business focused services, analysts have said.For the time being, however, the new edition of Works will be ad-funded,
Microsoft Office Professional 2010, according to Satya Nadella, the newly minted Corporate Vice President of Microsoft;s Search & Advertising Platform Group. Nadella told me during an interview on July 27 that Microsoft recently released the new ad-funded version of Microsoft Works.If Functions nine.0 is out,
Windows 7 32 Bit, I haven;t found it yet — other than a couple download links on torrents and other sharing sites. Anyone else seen it?(I;ve asked Microsoft for more information on the new ad-funded Works suite. No word back yet. Update: Even though Microsoft;s own vice president discussed the product, no one will talk. The official comment,
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus, via a Microsoft spokeswoman: “We;re always looking at innovative ways to provide the best productivity tools to our customers, but have nothing to announce at this time.”)Nadella added that Functions will probably be just “the first of the ad-funded software we are going to do.” When I asked for other examples of products Microsoft may possibly decide to make absolutely free and ad-funded, he mentioned Office Accounting Express — a product which is currently available as both a no cost download and as a component of certain Office Live paid subscriptions. He also said software downloads/shareware was another category ripe with products that could be free and ad-funded.The decision to make Functions ad-funded is not coming out of the blue.Microsoft Operates 8.0, which Microsoft introduced in 2004, sells for $49.95. It introduced the 8.5 OEM update to Works in 2006. Microsoft Functions includes an address book, calendar, database,
Office Pro, dictionary, PowerPointо Viewer, basic Word, and templates. Traditionally, a number of PC makers have preloaded the Works product on low-end PCs. But with its Office Ready PC program, Microsoft has begun pushing PC makers to preload higher-margin Microsoft Office rather than the cheaper Microsoft Operates, on new machines.In his October 2005 “Internet Services Disruption” memo, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie noted that “(p)roducts must now embrace a ‘discover, learn, try, buy, recommend; cycle – sometimes with one of those phases being absolutely free,
Windows 7 Starter Key, another ad-supported, and yet another being subscription-based.” He added: “Groups should consider how new delivery and adoption models could impact plans, and whether embracing new advertising-supported revenue models might possibly be market-relevant.”Even before Ozzie outlined his marching orders, Microsoft was mulling an ad-funded version of Operates. According to a document seen by News.com in 2005, Microsoft was already running the numbers on what it would take to do an ad-funded edition of its low-end suite. According to that report:“If ad revenues exceed 67 cents per year, we could actually give Operates away and still make more money,” two Microsoft researchers and one person from MSN stated in a paper presented to Chairman Bill Gates at a Thinkweek brainstorming session earlier this year.”Do you think a totally free, ad-funded edition of Microsoft Functions — even if it;s not a “service” — will help Microsoft fight off Google and other Web-based productivity suite vendors? Do you still expect Microsoft to release a non-ad-funded, paid edition of Works as a subscription service at some point?
Office Pro Microsoft Works to become a free, ad-fu
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