Office 2003 Rides More Shelves Than Computers

No_Style

Longhorn slips and slides may be a future challenge for Microsoft. But getting Office users to upgrade is a more important immediate concern.

Microsoft loves to talk about the promise of better collaboration, better process integration and so forth offered by the new Office System. It also likes to report how the licensing run rate exceeds expectations. What's left unsaid, nearly a year into the product's release, is how relatively few Office 2003 desktops are actually deployed.

While many companies have signed on for the upgrade, even early adopters say they've installed just a small percentage of their seats. Many were waiting for Service Pack 1, which shipped in late July, but the slow upgrade goes deeper than that, channel sources say. "Most people see no reason to move," said one longtime partner, who requested anonymity.

Customer inertia is no surprise. Microsoft Group Vice President Jeff Raikes has said Office's biggest challenge, given its 90 percent-plus market share, is upgrading existing users.

"Actual Office 2003 deployment has been disappointing to them, and they're doing all they can to spur actual use of the product," said one large reseller. The issue arises when volume licenses come up for renewal and customers look at the shelfware from the last go-round. They often wonder why they should sign up.
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Read More/Source: CRN

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No_Style

I personally don't use Office 2003 as much as I do Corel Wordperfect. Was there a difference between Office 2003 and XP? Well yeah, but they were minor and under the hood type things. All I could see was a new GUI and a faster loading wordprocessor.

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PoopyTheJ

One word - OpenOffice.

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No_Style

Never extensively used OpenOffice. I tried it once with RH9.. But that's about it.

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Chubby_C

I like Office 2003, before that I was running 2000, was able to purchase a copy through my work and the Microsoft home use program for $30 Canadian (Professional).

I think the biggest thing holding back office is the cost. I'm sure there are alot of people running office, but very few who actually buy it.

Vampyromaniac

does anyone really need a Word newer than Word 97?

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Zelig

Yeah, Corel Office is great, you can pick up the latest OEM version for around $30 Canadian.

The last version of MS Office I bought, and used (on my own computers), was Office 97, and I haven't used that for many years.

Chubby_C

Good point; myself, I rarely use Word anyway, I generally use Outlook and Publisher. Outlook especially I prefer the new interface. Only downside is that Frontpage is now separate from Office.

pr0digal jenius

i love 2003...XP had a couple quirks with certain printers 2003 seems to have fixed...and openoffice is good for word processing, but it's spreadsheet and slideshow apps are garbage

i just bought office 2003 pro w/ my academic discount through school for $200...bwahaha

PoopyTheJ

I work at Kinkos, and let me tel you there are no worse applications for printing than Microsoft Office suite, absolutely the most horrible, uncotrollable garbage you've ever seen. Openoffice actually prints correctly, which is way more than can be said of the office suite from MS.

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