I just came across this article from Computer World quoting Bill Gates that 'Office 14' will be Web-friendly.
Microsoft won't provide the full functionality of Office online, but it will offer limited online capability for viewing and editing the data in Office applications. It already does this for its Outlook e-mail client with a product called Outlook Web Access, and it will offer similar capabilities for other applications in Office 14, Gates said in a speech at the Microsoft Office System Developer Conference in San Jose.
I guess, Microsoft seem to be feeling the pressure from online office apps. I am glad to see them adopt to the change on the application side. I guess the next step for MS will be to adopt to the new pricing model for productivity apps - FREE.
These productivity applications has been around for years and don't you think they should be commodity by now? Paying $400 for an office suite made sense when the price of the desktop/laptop were $5K. Now the price of the hardware has come down to $400 and we still pay $400 for an office suite. On top of it, there is a new version every two or three years asking for an upgrade (of features/$$$?). May be some day we'll see a model like web apps where 'All Upgrades are included'.
What do you think? Shouldn't productivity apps be commodity by now?
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