Text 6208, 62 rader
Skriven 2005-07-21 17:18:12 av Mike '/m' (1:379/45)
Ärende: Window closing on Office 2003
=====================================
From: Mike '/m' <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/07/21/microsoft_office_2003/

===
Microsoft is facing an uphill battle to push copies of Office 2003 on customers
and its ISV partner ecosystem, ahead of next year's predicted launch of Office
12.

Office 2003 appears to be falling behind in targeted sales for this point in
the product's lifecycle, according to Microsoft's own internal figures and
guidelines. Just 15% of PCs are running Office 2003, two years into its life,
with Office 12 - the next edition of Microsoft's ubiquitous suite - now on the
horizon. However, Microsoft traditionally expects between 50% and two thirds of
customers to be running the previous version of Office when the new copy ships.

During a recent press roundtable Chris Capossela, vice president for
Microsoft's Information Worker product management group said that Microsoft is
holding firm on these numbers, and expects two thirds of the 400m Office
installation base will be running Office 2003 at the time when Office 12 ships.

That means an awful lot of sales, marketing and product development work by
partners during the next 18 months, in order for Microsoft to hit those
figures.

News of the gap between sales and expectations explains Microsoft's recent
attempt to tempt partners developing services and add-ins for Office 2003, and
the earlier Office XP, with tall tales of a $140bn market opportunity in
getting customers to move off of old versions of Office onto newer editions.

Microsoft believes customers should adopt Office 2003 now, rather than hold out
for the anticipated release of Office 12, in-order to capitalize on recent
advances in the suite's e-mail management, remote networking and security.

Capossela said: "It's a matter of how much value do these [features] have in
0ffice 2003 and are customers willing to wait for 18 months to do team
collaboration or 18 months before they can get their inbox under control.
Eighteen months is along time for people to wait."

According to analysts, and a sizeable chunk of letters to The Register on this
subject, one hurdle Microsoft must clear is persuading customers to overcome
the basic level of comfort and familiarity they have using their existing,
older, copies of Office. Capossela believes Microsoft can overcome this inertia
by evangelizing people on how the workplace has changed and later versions of
Office can meet their needs.

"For us, it's telling people about the things they can do that add [to] the
changing workplace. It's about what are the pains of the changing workplace...
the fact e-mail has quadrupled. The Outlook we shipped then wasn't great as
handling tons of e-mail or you don't have to VPN into the core network from an
internet café," Capossela said....
===


To paraphrase Microsoft, ~upgrade now because we need the revenue.  then
upgrade again in 18 months because we want you to.~

 /m

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5
 * Origin: Barktopia BBS Site http://HarborWebs.com:8081 (1:379/45)