On Friday 01 November 2002 1:46 pm, Piotr Gawrysiak wrote: [...] | I agree, but the problem - I think - is that the users' opinions are much | more important here. The desktop environment which is more popular will be | developed faster and more actively because it attracts more attention. And | its popularity will grow if it attracts more attention. The same applies | for other applications. | | Summing up - I think that as Open Office is multiplatform it attracts more | media attention (and this is very important - several of my friends and | coworkers - some not even IT people - knew about Open Office and were | willing to give it a try or support the project somehow. None heard about | KOffice :-( ). It seems that currently OO has much greater potential to | attract developers, and attract businesses because of this. | I would like to contribute to this thread even further. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-964504.html?tag=fd_lede1_hed Does Corel's life jacket have a leak? By David Becker Staff Writer, CNET News.com November 5, 2002, 4:00 AM PT On the verge of extinction two years ago, software publisher Corel has been on a roll lately. Almost every major PC maker has signed deals in the past few months to use Corel's WordPerfect office software on low-end PCs, in place of more expensive Microsoft products. But analysts say those high-profile deals are ultimately unlikely to help Corel turn around a growing string of losses that have depressed the Canadian company's stock to the point where it now trades below cash value. [...] While these deals have won Corel widespread attention for cracking Microsoft's presumed monopoly in office software, they won't have any immediate payoff for the Canadian company, which is practically giving the software to PC makers for free. While the company won't reveal the price it's charging, company executives said during Corel's most recent earnings call not to expect a significant increase in revenue from PC makers, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Instead, Corel expects to eventually generate income from sales to customers upgrading from the stripped-down version of WordPerfect sold to OEMs--either to the full WordPerfect suite or to later versions of WordPerfect itself. "The purpose of it is really a seeding strategy," Corel CEO Derek Burney said of the OEM deals. "The significance is that we can get our products in the hands of millions of users who might not otherwise have a chance to experience them. It's a way for us to show the world that there is a value opportunity out there. "They're growing their installed base on a product that was, for the most part, 'end-of-life' a few years ago," he said. "The customers will eventually go through a renewal cycle, and they want to migrate between products. If Corel can go after them at a price point they're willing to pay--under $200--they can get some business. The problem in the past is they've wanted to price their suite at the same level as Microsoft (has)." But the entry-level customers buying the low-end PCs that WordPerfect will be installed on are unlikely to become lifelong friends of Corel once they realize the bundled version of the software includes no tech support, said Jeffrey Tarter, editor of software industry newsletter Softletter. "These are entry-level systems--systems primarily intended for newcomers to computing," he said. "They're going to kids and the elderly and people with very limited experience with computing. To give those people very feature-rich, complex applications and expect them to figure it out--it's not going to make people real happy." Such price-sensitive customers are also less likely to pay for upgrades, especially when free alternatives such as Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice package are available, Illuminata's Eunice said. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Few comments: a) author doesn't mention KOffice (which is Bad) b) it seems WordPerfect is perceived as much more mature product than OpenOffice. And author doesn't mention (doesn't know?) that OpenOffice has roots in StarOffice. c) support is important. I think we have very reasonable support for KOffice users, via on-line community / mailing lists. d) all in all, it seems Corel in now targeting entry-level market, same markte targeted by Lindows.com, Xandros, Lycoris. And I hardly see how Corel can compete with those, unless having Office Suit running on WIndows is *requirement*. 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