微軟擬于明年推出Office免費網(wǎng)絡版

Microsoft yesterday escalated its battle with arch rival Google, reacting to an assault on one of its core businesses with the announcement of a free online version of its widely used Office software, to be launched next year.

微軟(Microsoft)昨日升級了與勁敵谷歌(Google)之間的爭斗。微軟宣布，將于明年推出使用廣泛的Office軟件的免費網(wǎng)絡版，從而對自己的核心業(yè)務之一受到攻擊做出回應。

While likely to take only a small bite out of Office revenues in the short term, the move represents one of the most radical steps yet by Microsoft as it tries to refocus its software business around the internet, according to analysts.

分析師表示，雖然此舉在短期內(nèi)可能只會略微損及Office的收入，卻是微軟迄今最為激進的舉措之一。微軟正試圖將其軟件業(yè)務的重心，轉(zhuǎn)移到以互聯(lián)網(wǎng)為平臺。

Users of the free online Office will be able to create and edit documents, spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations by using tools they are familiar with from the desktop software. Although only a “lightweight” version of the software, to make it more suitable for use in internet browsers, it would still provide a fuller service than online rivals such as Google Apps, said Stephen Elop, head of Microsoft's Business Division.

免費網(wǎng)絡版Office的用戶將可以創(chuàng)建和編輯文件、電子表格和PowerPoint演示文件，運用他們熟悉的工具，一如桌面版Office。微軟商業(yè)部門總裁斯蒂芬•埃洛普(Stephen Elop)表示，雖然只是這款軟件的“輕量級”版本（使之更為適合在網(wǎng)絡瀏覽器上使用），但其提供的服務仍會比Google Apps等同類網(wǎng)絡版軟件更為全面。

“Google represents a serious threat,” said Tom Austin, an analyst at Gartner, who compared the rivalry between the two companies to the browser wars that shaped the early internet. With the free version of its software, “Microsoft is responding as vigorously as it did against Netscape,” he added.

“谷歌代表著一個重大威脅，”Gartner分析師湯姆•奧斯汀(Tom Austin)表示。他把兩家公司之間的競爭，與鑄就早期互聯(lián)網(wǎng)格局的“瀏覽器戰(zhàn)爭”相提并論。他表示，從宣布推出免費版軟件這一招來看，“微軟現(xiàn)在的回應與當初反擊Netscape一樣猛烈。”

Google already claims more than 15m users of its free suite of applications, although paying customers for the premium version number hundreds of thousands. By contrast, Microsoft says around 500m people have Office on their PCs, though half of these use pirated copies.

谷歌聲稱，其免費應用套件已有超過1500萬用戶，盡管付費的高級版用戶只有幾十萬。相比之下，微軟表示，約5億人在個人電腦(PC)上安裝了Office，盡管其中一半人使用的是盜版軟件。

The free version of Office will do little to hurt Microsoft's overall business. Microsoft makes most of its money selling to corporate users and only a relatively small number of home users are likely to abandon the PC version of Office in the short term, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a research group.

免費版Office基本上不會損及微軟總體業(yè)務。研究機構(gòu)Directions on Microsoft的分析師馬特•羅塞夫(Matt Rosoff)表示，微軟大部分收入來自企業(yè)用戶，短期內(nèi)只會有相對較少的家庭用戶可能放棄PC版Office。

With virtually all of its sales coming from Office, the Microsoft Business Division made $12.4bn in operating profits last year, or 42 per cent of the total for the company. Mr Elop said Microsoft would experiment with placing advertising on the online applications before making them publicly available in the first half of next year.

微軟商業(yè)部門的幾乎全部收入都來自Office軟件，去年該部門營運利潤為124億美元，占該公司總營運利潤的42%。埃洛普表示，在明年上半年公開發(fā)布網(wǎng)絡版Office之前，微軟將嘗試在這些網(wǎng)絡應用軟件上安插廣告。

譯者/岱嵩