MobilityLeaks: Blame Corel and WordPerfect

On 1/14/2013 7:25 AM, Doug Simmons wrote: The Surface Pro won’t come with Office? Really? Let’s assume this isn’t a joke. Why, if you were Microsoft, would you not include Office in this device?

David K:

No PC comes with Office preloaded for free. Surface RT is the first break and that’s why there’s no outlook…keeps it weak for business on purpose and puts corporate types on pro paying premiums. Only google can afford to give away all their products.
Sent from my Windows Phone

Ram:

Yes, with google you get screwgled after taking for free. There is no free lunch after all.

Sent from Windows Mail

Marti:

But we already knew that. And I completely agree.

Unfortunately, I think MS has let the cat out of the bag with RT. People will start crying for it to be included in all PCs. Don’t forget how whiny Americans can be. Of course, they’ll just bump the price up to cover it…

Sent from my Windows Phone

Matt:

Also, they can’t include it. Thank you late 90’s anti-competitive lawsuit. Blame Corel and WordPerfect. Maybe lotus too.

David K:

There’s two major limitation to RT that make it very non-corporate. One is the lack of Outlook. It hurts…The other is that you can’t right click and send to email. They did that on purpose. If they start to give Office away then they lose $1b.

Jimski:

Well no. They will include a trial subscription to the monthly Office subscription service (like they do now with O2010), and retailers may offer extended subscriptions with purchase of a new PC. But the Corporate world will “always” pay for Office. Glad I wasn’t paying for those $2600 flights to CA in my traveling days.

Doug Simmons:

What the fuck does this have to with Google?

Was it not your assumptions that this would come with some sort of Office version given that the RT did, given that the RT had charitably-described modest sales, given that Microsoft has made it clear from rants to a tsunami of promotion that they want to get into the mobile ring, given that many including you people remarked that the main selling point of the Surface is Office, given that the RT not including Outlook was received poorly, is this not a surprise to you?

Sixteen hundred bucks for a Surface that can run real-McCoy Outlook for a few hours and make that snapping sound?

I can’t help but get the strong impression over the years that Microsoft does not care that much about mobile and that they’re at peace with that. You’re not but they are.

Meanwhile Microsoft is hard at work on Office for iOS. Which I think is smart actually, whereas RT and the Surface (both of them) were dumb ideas.

> But the Corporate world will “always” pay for Office.

You don’t think the corporate world, like the types that buy computers by the thousands, or hybrid things, might be turned off that they have to get these copies of Office onto it either one at a time or wirelessly after they configured all the network settings one at time when a… I was just about to say competing product, but I just realized that there apparently isn’t much competition at all in this hybrid Microsoft phone / tablet / laptop / whatever market at all. There’s only evidence to suggest it doesn’t exist. People ain’t buying what they’re selling. If you’re the new sheriff in town looking to change things up, you’d better at least bring some pre-installed copies of Office with you or an Apple logo or a $200 pricetag.

This is bullshit you know, this email thread. If David had brought up this Office/Surface Pro situation and bitched a bit about it and I kept my distance, you all would be in full effing agreement, not going on and on about Google this and no-free-lunch that.

It’s a trifle absurd, frankly.

David K:

No. I always presumed that Pro falls in line with every other PC and that means no free bundle. If Microsoft did bundle they’d have antitrust scrutiny.

Doug Simmons:

Oh David my darling when it comes to anything involving the Surface or Windows Phone, one thing that ain’t coming to anyone’s mind is the word monopoly. And you know it.

Also, the FTC, politicians, consumer watchdog groups, they, like many consumers as Samsung pointed out recently don’t see the distinction you do between PC and something else, whatever you call the Surface RT, in terms of what gets a “free” copy of Office, nor does anyone really other than CTOs, bloggers and IT guys.

I suppose you might be able to make the argument that it’s better not to include Office in this to underscore that it’s, experience-wise, a bonafide PC and PCs tend not to come with Office, so that’s partly why it costs even more hundreds and hundreds of dollars than its overpriced sister. But that won’t lead to more sales now will it.

Nor will it lead to a successful launch from which the Surface Pro not only makes money itself with sales not described with words like modest but it becomes popular enough to give Office license a noticeable boost.

Modest. Are you used to that word yet? A step up from flop, right? Though you still hear that one too..

David K:

European Trade Commission and you disagree…Microsoft is still under their gun. Look at the recent ballot issue they had that was an oversight and they still got dinged.

Jimski:

Think you missed my point. Aside from the anti-trust implications, the corporate world typically does not get breaks on things like Office (unless you are a really large customer). Need Office Professional, $299. Need 10 copies for your office, $299 x 10, $2,990. So, I wouldn’t expect the Surface Pro, a business centric device, to offer any deal on Office.  But then again, need a three user license for Office Home and Student, $99. That’s the demographic the Surface RT is geared for. If a business wants to us a less costly alternative to Office on the other hand, more power to them.

Doug Simmons:

It’s called a deal sweetener or one of few selling points of this product over Macbook Airs, netbooks, ultrabooks, hybrids and everything else that Microsoft could sprinkle on the Surface Pro, Office Pro, in an effort to get people to buy the damn thing. Don’t they really want to do that?

Guy walks into a Microsoft store, “And this is the Pro version, just $1100 with the keyboard plus some tax; it lets you run Office Pro!” “Okay I’ll take one!” “All right great, would you like a $300 copy of Microsoft Office Pro with that too?” “You know what, never mind — where’s the Xbox rack?”

Fin