Is Microsoft Office dead?
Some discussion on this going around at the moment led by Steve Gillmor of ZDNet. However, Microsoft’s evangelist, Robert Scoble, earns his crust by coming to the rescue. Yes, he says Office is dead … but only if you compare today’s Web 2.0 with Office 97.
I’ve been using Office 12 for the past few days and, I can’t go back. The Excel pivot table feature alone is worth paying hundreds of dollars. Alone.
And tables are finally really cool. PowerPoint is actually something I’ll use again. Creating a chart there is sure a lot nicer than I’ve been able to do on any Web site.
Steve also hasn’t been paying attention to our secret weapon: workflow. Try to stick that in your Linux server and smoke it!
There’s no question that Office 12 will sell reasonably well. My own view is that over the next two to five years thick-client Office sales will tail off, maybe not spectacularly, but sufficiently to reduce Microsoft’s performance significantly. The Web will overwhelm shrink-wrapped and OEM-loaded software quicker than we think possible right now.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] In yesterday’s post, we had Robert Scoble eulogizing Microsoft’s new Office 12, now in beta, v.1. In response to Scoble’s original post, Ed Bott complains about the Office non-disclosure agreement (NDA): I’d love to say the same, except I can’t. As I pointed out yesterday, the terms of the Office 12 confidentiality agreement prohibit me from discussing any aspect of the product. This information blackout applies to everyone except Microsoft employees, apparently. [...]