4 ms·
Microsoft's core revenue is still due to market lock-in of their proprietary technologies: MS Office and Windows itself. There are other office suites out ther
by loudmax 7y ago
Microsoft's core revenue is still due to market lock-in of their proprietary technologies: MS Office and Windows itself. There are other office suites out there, but nothing can gain much market share without complete compatibility for MS Office file formats: docx, pptx, etc. Microsoft produced a version of Office for Macs and that allowed Apple to grow greater than niche, but their market share was always tiny compared to Windows.
Outside of Windows and Mac, you're in Open Source land, which is great if you're technically minded and want to tinker and explore, but not much of an option for folks who just want their computers to work with the consumer software and file formats around them. Other than Apple, where are the commercial alternatives to Microsoft?
I'd be much more sympathetic to Nardella's renaissance if it meant real consumer choice. The situation is better than it was under Ballmer, but not as good as it could be in a real free marketplace.
- bgorman 7y agoG Suite, WPS Office, WordPerfect
- tabtab 7y agoTheir compatibility with existing MS documents is not good enough yet. This is largely because you'd have to mirror many glitches and idiosyncrasies in MS's code to have full compatibility. Or as the say in the industry "bug-for-bug compatibility".
- arethuza 7y agoTo be fair there are features in Excel that you can't use in Excel online - password protected workbooks, watches etc.
- jlarocco 7y agoGoogle's office software is a joke compared to the standalone versions of Office. Microsoft's web based Office is pretty bad, too, but at least they don't mangle imported documents quite as bad. I know everybody thinks they're "good enough" for most people, but they're still crap compared to the regular desktop programs.
- blhack 7y agoExcel is actually an amazing product. Google docs is cool, but it’s nothing compared to excel.
- pier25 7y agoExcel is a beast, but for my use case Google Sheets is better since I don't need the advanced features and it's always available in any browser. My biggest problem with Google Docs in general is not about features but that performance is pretty bad.
- flatb 7y agoI second your statement about Google Docs. I find it amazing that they don't put a bigger focus on performance. We're talking about tools that are essentially about being productive! Any Google Docs product feels incredibly sluggish, and I feel this trend lately even in Gmail or Google Keep. It just constantly feels like those old-school fat clients constantly hiccupping because of a slow server.
- shostack 7y agoI use Sheets for work and increasingly a bunch of personal stuff. I wish Google would invest more in customization of visuals and such with charts and allow for better pivot functionality, but otherwise it is pretty solid. I can't see myself ever paying for Excel for personal use at this point.
- munchbunny 7y agoExcel and Photoshop are in a league of their own. There are competing tools that do some of the things they do, but I can think of very few that manage to be a baseline for everyone.
- lunchables 7y agoI agree. But the funny thing about both of those is they reached a point of diminishing returns arguably in 2007 and certainly by 2010. The versions back then provide the features needed by 95-99% of the existing user base today.
- caprese 7y agoThe last half a decade in open source OS land has been amazing.... No issues with file formats Amazing unbloated (or at least to the point) user experiences
- mhermher 7y agoWhat is core revenue? Because you are excluding cloud, gaming, hardware which altogether very likely make up >50% of their revenue.