I bet someone is going to regret this phrasing...
Microsoft late Tuesday warned of "massive disruptions" to sales of Office, as well as to partners such as Best Buy, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, if the injunction that prevents it from selling Word 2003 and Word 2007 in the U.S. after Oct. 10 is not set aside. ...May I present "an alternative set of software". Oh, it's free, too. Lotus Symphony 1.3.
Microsoft painted a bleak picture for users. "Even if the injunction will not affect Microsoft's existing Office customers, consumers and businesses who require new copies of Office and Word would be stranded without an alternative set of software." Microsoft's attorneys also claimed that the situation would be a "major public disruption," and would "have an effect on the public due to the public's undisputed and enormous reliance on those products."
Link: Computerworld: Microsoft: 'Massive disruptions' if Word injunction not lifted >
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- 2
Henry Ferlauto | 8/19/2009 9:23:19 PM
If by some chance Microsoft cannot get an injunction (which I doubt will happen), what is IBM's contingency plan?
Meaning this would be the golden opportunity to get people to try Symphony. Is IBM ready to actually make a big push if such a scenario were to arise?
On a related note (and regardless of the courts), I think the "AOL" approach of minting boat loads of CD (DVDs) in the down economy would have an impact at big box retailers.
Meaning pay retailers to "bundle" CD with every computer purchase. If they won't do that (because I'm sure Microsoft would strenuously object) then have POP (point of purchase) signage with the CDs for the taking.
- 3
Graham Dodge | 8/19/2009 9:44:42 PM
@2 Why would retailers agree to host signage and displays giving away a free product (Symphony) when that would lower their chance of selling a competitor product (say WordPerfect) on which they could make a profit? I wish they would stock Symphony but I'm sure they won't.
That doesn't mean that IBM/Lotus should ignore this opportunity but I'll bet the retailers won't help.
- 4
keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 8/19/2009 9:47:43 PM
Microsoft is confused, existing users will not be affected, only new customers.
That said, IBM should step up and let the world know, or just every tech writer, that there is an option and it's free and after 2 weeks you won't even want to go back.
- 5
Scott Skaife | 8/19/2009 10:16:40 PM
It seems odd that MS would tell a court that it had a monopoly in any area.
- 6
Gavin Bollard http://dominogavin.blogspot.com | 8/19/2009 10:49:33 PM
Graham's right; Retailers wont stock Symphony.
So how does IBM promote it? What's wrong with getting a bunch of people wearing yellow clothing and handing out CDs in the city.
Perhaps you could put some other stuff on the CD too. Like maybe a presentation that says... "Are you using Lotus Notes?" Does your mail look like this... (R 8.5 screenshot). This is what Modern Notes does....
- 7
Stephen Wales | 8/19/2009 11:27:29 PM
This sounds like something for the IdeaJam:
Lotus knows "an alternative set of software".
- 8
Jerry Glover http://www.jerryglover.com | 8/19/2009 11:56:50 PM
@Gavin: Wow, that would be a radical (and exciting) idea for IBM - a Lotus street team!
In a similar vein, find a way to get Lotus Symphony CDs into college students' hands as they are arriving back on campus - I remember all sorts of promo inserts in the bags at bookstores. Getting into students' heads now means more awareness when they enter the workforce.
- 9
James Chen | 8/20/2009 12:21:13 AM
What is current marketshare of Lotus Symphony
- 10
Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/20/2009 12:43:38 AM
@9 It's roughly 2% according to Forrester Research. As Microsoft claim somewhere between 400 and 500 million users of Office, I'll take 2% as a good starting point.
- 11
mike | 8/20/2009 1:38:22 AM
All Microsoft has to do is disable the custom XML feature, which should be pretty easy to do, then give that a different SKU number from what's been sold so it's easy to distinguish the two versions
- 12
Mat Newman http://www.isw.net.au | 8/20/2009 1:52:29 AM
OK, So symphony is free software, but who said you can't sell Media?
MS sure do. Call them and tell them your install disk is scratched, that you need a replacement and they charge you for the disk.
Put it in the stores inside a nice DVD-style case that includes a glossy "Getting started" guide, there's the value!
$19.95 for an office compatible productivity Suite, with a helpful user guide to get me started ... Instead of $hundreds for office ... why not?
Lotus Knows Value!
- 13
Patrick Kwinten http://quintessens.wordpress.com | 8/20/2009 2:42:58 AM
we had already the first rooftop jumpers, office clerks who went desperate when they heard that Word was going to be de-installed on their pc's =)
- 14
Pete Hampton | 8/20/2009 3:57:38 AM
Microsoft will fight tooth and nail to overturn this, who is to say they wont just buy off i4i. This directly affects revenues on one of the only two products that actually make up the vast majority of their revenues.
It still staggers me that the vast majority of the population still blindly hand over vast quantities of cash to Microsoft for Office, a pic here from my local computer store { Link } At current exchange rates thats well over $700!! And Symphony costs?
- 15
Henry Ferlauto | 8/20/2009 10:37:44 AM
@3 & @6 - The means is not as important as the end, getting Symphony in to many hands to try it out.
But I will say that if there is a financial incentive, they would stock it. No different than when they had AOL CDs on the counter. Those of course were easier to track because each CD came with a unique ID. I haven't installed Symphony "stand alone" so I don't know if there is a registration number. (It's free software, so it's certainly not necessary from an anti-piracy perspective.)
Again the main question is how could / would IBM get masses of people to try Symphony? Even without the "gift" of a court injunction against Microsoft Word, IBM should be looking to at least modestly promote Symphony and increase adoption.
Two cents from the loyal peanut gallery.
- 16
Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 8/20/2009 12:27:28 PM
@8 "@Gavin: Wow, that would be a radical (and exciting) idea for IBM - a Lotus street team!"
Not radical, Lotus has done it before a number of times.
The question I haven't heard anyone ask yet, does this injunction impact Symphony's support for DOCX files?
@10 2% share with +/- 3% error I would imagine.
- 17
Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 8/20/2009 12:29:47 PM
Why Microsoft isn't worried, in video.
{ Link }
- 18
Mark Lepisto | 8/20/2009 1:22:53 PM
@17 Brilliant. I hope someone sees this that can simplify the Symphony download process. IBM websites need a major overhaul, I have 3 different username/password combos for IBM websites and I have to store them on my Blackberry so I can remember which usersname is for which piece of an IBM site...
- 19
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 8/20/2009 1:45:19 PM
@17 - I watched that and laughed several times... and then realised I really shouldn't be laughing. I couldn't possibly comment on whether or not you have made a good point. I'm saying nothing.
- 20
Brett H | 8/20/2009 1:57:07 PM
Nathan... that's the saddest and most telling video I think I've ever seen. I almost cried.
I think I'll go watch "Requiem for a Dream" or "Ol' Yeller" to cheer myself up.
Ed, please, for the love of all things holy, help do something about it.
- 21
Peter Presnell | 8/20/2009 3:35:50 PM
It seems like this is a HUGE opportunity no matter what is decided legally. There is already enough doubt and material in the public domain that can be quoted to create fear in the minds of Microsoft customers that they should be putting into place a contingency plan should Microsoft be unable to provide software. Don't wait until the last minute, make the switch to Synphony NOW!
- 22
Bernard | 8/21/2009 5:48:51 AM
@17 Nathan it is worse than that.
I downloaded and install Symphony and OpenOffice.
On starting Symphony it seemed that it re-started 3 times (the Lotus Symphony splash screen appeared and disappeared). Between the 2nd & 3rd occurence I was asked to agree to the license agreement again! At least on subsequent executions of Symphony I was not presented with the splash screen three times.
Once installed I fired up Writer on each suite then looked at the memory usage. Under OpenOffice there is only 1 relevant process started - soffice.bin using 14mb. Under Symphony with only the writer application running there is soffice.bin using 14mb plus Symphony using 53mb. I'm assuming that this is the expeditor framework that presents the kind of 'desktop' where one choses whether to create a document, presentation or spreadsheet. But it sure seems like a lot of overhead for anyone who is just writing documents or creating presentations.
I assumed this meant that there were additional management/deployment opportunities provided by Symphony being wrapped in the expeditor desktop, but I can't see any obvious benefit for it.
- 23
Thomas http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/08/17/Federal-future-Microsoft-Word-uncertain.aspx?Page=2 | 8/22/2009 7:27:47 AM
According to the page (posted as link above), even other products (such as OpenOffice) are affected.
Wouldnt this mean that Symphony is affected as well???
- 24
Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.comT | 8/22/2009 7:38:02 AM
On Friday, August 21, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Microsoft an expedited appeal of its patent infringement loss to i4i Limited Partnership.
{ Link }
- 25
chemicalscum | 8/22/2009 2:31:19 PM
i4i Have indicated that they don't claim Openoffice is covered by their patents. This means that OOo, Symphony and the ODF format are not threatened.
One way out for Microsoft would be for them to abandon OOXML and adopt ODF for MS Office. Not that I think that they will do it.
- 26
John Turnbow http://www.recondite2.com | 8/22/2009 4:38:25 PM
Massive disruptions my gosh.. Let's get real... Only disruption is for MS$.
- 27
Klaus Heubisch http://www.heubisch.de | 8/22/2009 6:40:24 PM
I like (love) Lotus Notes - but Symphony 1.3 is no alternative set of software to Office 2007.
Office compared to Symphony is like Lotus Notes compared to Outlook.
- 28
Luigi Mastrogiacomo | 8/23/2009 1:38:36 AM
Yes, you're right. I've tried to distribute simphony in a production enviromment in a couple of companies and after about 1 week they told that Simphony was "a toy".
The things that companies pointed were:
- compatibility with the MS office suite (exspecially printing) was a disaster
- slow
- fequent crashes
- less intuitive to use
- where are the macros?
- where are the plugins for office that users use? Are there alternatives?
In my opinion I think IBM is losing time in the making of a product which already exists in the market: Open Office. I think they really should spend energies by giving programmers and moneys to the open office project, with the revenue of making an great integration of Openoffice with notes (as the model of simphony). I think this is the only way to be really competitive with the Office suite without wasting time, resources and moneys
- 29
Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/23/2009 6:52:01 AM
@28 Luigi, there are 200,000+ IBMers using Symphony every day. I am not sure where you are seeing frequent crashes -- this is not being reported in the forums.
I suggest you provide your feedback with specific examples at symphony.lotus.com.
@17 -- IBM has to comply with export regulations, so we have to have some kind of a registration/validation process. OpenOffice.org may have different requirements. A more valid comparison might be to something like the process to download Adobe Acrobat reader.
- 30
Nazeer Aval | 8/24/2009 3:12:44 PM
symphony 1.3 never got crashed. I have been using Symphony ever since it was released and with MS Office uninstalled since then
The word "undisputed" in the last sentance of your quote might also be open to question.
.