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Threats to Office's Dominance Multiply with New Offerings from Adobe, IBM
Paying for word processing software may soon be a thing of past if Microsoft competitors Adobe, Google and IBM have any say.
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. And, of course, 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.
And that's not the only new threat: IBM today unveiled the 1.0 version of Lotus
Symphony, its free application suite based on the Open Document Format
(ODF).
Symphony, released
in beta format 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 former editorial director and director of Web for 1105 Media's Converge 360 group, and she now serves as vice president of AI for company, specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. Find her on X/Twitter @beckynagel.