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Threats to Office Multiply with New Offerings from Adobe, IBM
Paying for word processing software may soon be a thing of past
Paying for word processing software may soon be a thing of past if Microsoft competitors Adobe, Google, and IBM have any say.
Google already offers Google Docs, a free, hosted suite of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools plus online storage. There's OpenOffice, the no-cost, open source application suite currently working on its third version.
Now Adobe has jumped into the fray with Acrobat.com, a new beta site featuring free online hosting and collaboration tools. The suite offers a word processor, PDF converter, and Web conferencing/desktop sharing tools.
Adobe will be integrating Acrobat.com into Acrobat 9, coming in July. Developer APIs are available for custom integration, the company said.
"Acrobat.com enables individuals to truly work collaboratively on electronic documents," the company said in its announcement of the suite. "Acrobat.com delivers a new way for people to work together online."
Registration for the site is currently open.
That's not the only new threat: IBM today unveiled version 1.0 of Lotus Symphony, its free application suite based on the Open Document Format (ODF).
Symphony, released in beta last year, offers a word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation program. It also offers open APIs for integration with Eclipse or other frameworks, the company said.
The free download of 1.0 is now available here, although IBM's Symphony blog notes that the site is experiencing "intermittent problems with the downloads due to heavy demand."
Along with the release of the suite today, IBM announced a new "elite" support package for large enterprises using Symphony. According to reports, the package costs a flat $25,000.
While Microsoft offers free online collaboration tools for Office users through its Office Live Workspace beta, users must have purchased versions of the related Office software to use the site. The Office Live Small Business version of the offering includes a Web site, e-mail, and domain name free for one year.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is the vice president of Web & Digital Strategy for 1105's Converge360 Group, where she oversees the front-end Web team and deals with all aspects of digital projects at the company, including launching and running the group's popular virtual summit and Coffee talk series . She an experienced tech journalist (20 years), and before her current position, was the editorial director of the group's sites. A few years ago she gave a talk at a leading technical publishers conference about how changes in Web browser technology would impact online advertising for publishers. Follow her on twitter @beckynagel.