Is Microsoft Office Dead?

By Randy Jensen | Jun 6, 2006

Google is about to release Google Spreadsheets, their watered-down online version of Excel, which is part of the industry standard Microsoft Office. This move got me thinking, is Office dead? And if so, are pc based applications on their way? Maybe not now, but within the next twenty years I predict we will see a huge decline in the amount of software we install on our pc’s. Now that Web 2.0 is here and doesn’t look like it is showing any signs of slowing down for a while, new online applications are being churned out daily. Not familiar with the new Web 2.0 or any of these new-age online apps? Here’s a quick overview.

Web 2.0 is nothing more than a term that was adopted for the new way people are using and designing on the internet. From a designers perspective Web 2.0 means rounded corners, skilled use of drop shadows, starbursts, betas, gradients, glossy/glassy images, big text, diagonally lined backgrounds, you get the idea. CarbonPipeline.com implements almost all of these and is really an amazing site. As developers are concerned, this new movement means plenty of AJAX, community related sites (MySpace), wikis, online photo and video sharing (Flickr and YouTube), social bookmarking (del.icio.us), etc.

Now that you are up to speed with the 20th Century, let’s talk Microsoft. In the first quarter of 2007, Bill Gates has promised the new flagship operating system, Windows Vista and a beefed up version of Microsoft Office, Office 2007. There are several version of Vista that will ship, with “Vista Ultimate” (C’mon Bill, Ultimate?) being the top-dog. This can be yours for only $450, umm…no thanks. And Office 2007, drum roll please…$679! So for $1,100 you can run an operating system and create a Word document. Alllright. Hello Bill! I can buy an entire computer for half the price of that.

So how can Microsoft think they can get away with this? If you are reading on to find an answer, you will be sorely disappointed (only speculation below). Let’s look at the competition MS is facing. OpenOffice is an open source app that will do the exact same thing as MS Office for the hefty price of…FREE. That’s one major strike for “MSO” 2007. In addition to this, new online apps are continually getting better and better everyday and will also do the job for free. Most of these will even store your documents on their server, which I like, but some people will argue is not a good thing (Do you really want Google to have access to your financial records?). Do you need to do a quick spreadsheet and let your business partner across the globe see it and edit it instantly? Try iRows. How about a text document? Try writely (now owned by Google, there’s that “G” word again).

As far as I know there are no legitimate replacements for PowerPoint and Access (but do everyday users really use Access anyway?). So this makes the price tag of Microsoft Office 2007 that much harder to swallow. Essentially you could be paying $700 for PowerPoint. Ouch.

So how does Microsoft think they can keep making Office profitable? Here’s an idea. Release an online version of the software that comes with the standard pc based version. Now, this could already be in the works, but given Microsoft’s track record, if it was we would have all heard about it months ago. Add a price drop and the new slick interface that the beta version of Office already has, and maybe you can still compete. Now don’t get me wrong. There are NO online apps available today that have the versatility and the sheer number of options that Office does, but does the average user even use 5% of them? I don’t believe so.

I’ve used the new version of Office already and I am very pleased and impressed with it. They have gotten rid of the menu bar and replaced it with what they are calling the “ribbon” (here). Unfortunately, I think all this is going to do is confuse the average user and actually make people want to buy it less. Lets face it, the average American does not want to re-learn anything. All-in-all it will be an interesting next few years for Microsoft and Office and only time will tell if next time you need to type that breaking news article if you fire up Microsoft Word or your web browser.