Looking for MS Office - how can some sellers sell so cheaply?

[redhed17]

That's where Microsoft counter with the 'Family' Office 365, which gives up to 5 people in the same household all of office, plus 1Tb Onedrive each (for auto save / backup / access from multiple devices), on multiple devices each (PC, Laptop, Phone, Tablet). It's bundled cheap enough that if just one person in the house 'needs' to use Office, then everyone might as well have Office.

As I said, if the younger members of a family have little experience of MS Office, possibly having been using Google products, for free, for many years through school, the draw to use Office, even if it were free via another member of the family, may not be there. That is why these company's target education, get people into your ecosystem, and they may not change later down the line.

Apple, Google and Microsoft all want you in their ecosystem as much as possible, though go about that in different, but in some cases, overlapping ways. All offer operating systems, though only two of them offer office products, and one of those gives their office software for free. If free does what you want, why pay!

I think where MS miss out is not having a phone operating system, having messed that up years ago. Yes, you may get cloud data with MS Office, but Google Drive or iCloud are on most peoples phones, for free, by default. Again, if you get it for free, why pay!

 

[ancient_mariner]

one of those gives their office software for free. If free does what you want, why pay!

I'm reminded of that adage about if something from an internet giant is free then you are the product, but we haven't reached a tipping point on that yet where people refuse free stuff.

I think where MS miss out is not having a phone operating system, having messed that up years ago.

Agreed. For reasons various Microsoft have really struggled to manage selling hardware, although their surface range seems to have actually broken through that over the last few years. I have read the book that discusses why Microsoft/Nokia phones failed as a business, and it's mostly business/personnel failure rather than the product being bad. We both had Lumias for a few years, and they were genuinely good phones & much nicer to use than the HTC android that I had previously. In the end we ditched them because some of the more fundamental apps stopped working, but we were generally happy with them and the move back to Android was disappointing.

 

[redhed17]

I'm reminded of that adage about if something from an internet giant is free then you are the product, but we haven't reached a tipping point on that yet where people refuse free stuff.

If you don't think that all the company's I mentioned want market share to leverage their users as a product then that would be naive.

Whilst Microsoft do not give their OS (or Office) away for free, they don't seem to be doing anything about those that sell the keys very cheaply, I got a Win 10 key last year for £7.70 for example. They also let computers work which have not been activated to try and keep market share. Their dominance in the desktop computer OS market is in decline, though they still do have about 70% market share. There is now talk of them adding adverts to the Windows Start menu!

It will be interesting to see how that goes down, if it happens, and how quickly there would be a workaround.

Agreed. For reasons various Microsoft have really struggled to manage selling hardware, although their surface range seems to have actually broken through that over the last few years. I have read the book that discusses why Microsoft/Nokia phones failed as a business, and it's mostly business/personnel failure rather than the product being bad. We both had Lumias for a few years, and they were genuinely good phones & much nicer to use than the HTC android that I had previously. In the end we ditched them because some of the more fundamental apps stopped working, but we were generally happy with them and the move back to Android was disappointing.

I was late coming to mobile phones, and even later getting a smart phone. Apple was never an option for me, as I dislike how much control they have of the device, and, from what I have seen, how they limit access to basic things, such as your files!

And Android is the most dominant OS across all devices with just over 40%.

 

[ancient_mariner]

If you don't think that all the company's I mentioned want market share to leverage their users as a product then that would be naive.

Whilst Microsoft do not give their OS (or Office) away for free, they don't seem to be doing anything about those that sell the keys very cheaply, I got a Win 10 key last year for £7.70 for example. They also let computers work which have not been activated to try and keep market share. Their dominance in the desktop computer OS market is in decline, though they still do have about 70% market share. There is now talk of them adding adverts to the Windows Start menu!

It will be interesting to see how that goes down, if it happens, and how quickly there would be a workaround.

Thanks for proving my point.

I was late coming to mobile phones, and even later getting a smart phone.

My first smartphone was an early HTC Desire, but the winphones were far nicer to use, with a more efficient OS, snappier response and a sensible interface. A much better place for a phone noob to start than the awfulness that was Android design 8 years ago.

 

[Faldrax]

As I said, if the younger members of a family have little experience of MS Office, possibly having been using Google products, for free, for many years through school, the draw to use Office, even if it were free via another member of the family, may not be there. That is why these company's target education, get people into your ecosystem, and they may not change later down the line.

Apple, Google and Microsoft all want you in their ecosystem as much as possible, though go about that in different, but in some cases, overlapping ways. All offer operating systems, though only two of them offer office products, and one of those gives their office software for free. If free does what you want, why pay!

I think where MS miss out is not having a phone operating system, having messed that up years ago. Yes, you may get cloud data with MS Office, but Google Drive or iCloud are on most peoples phones, for free, by default. Again, if you get it for free, why pay!

Both my daughters (the eldest going to Uni this September) have used Office in school / college - I guess it depends on the school / college / academy on what gets used.
My wife and I both use office for work - so using on our personal laptops / PC's is an obvious choice for us.
Google Docs offers similar functionality to Office, but the UI is different - and the cost of a years subscription to 365 for the family is small enough that the convenience of using something familiar is worth it, to me.

 

[Craikeybaby]

Apple, Google and Microsoft all want you in their ecosystem as much as possible, though go about that in different, but in some cases, overlapping ways. All offer operating systems, though only two of them offer office products, and one of those gives their office software for free. If free does what you want, why pay!

All 3 do "office" products.

 

[redhed17]

All 3 do "office" products.

iWork, who knew!Every Apple user!

Looking it up, I had heard of Keynote, but not Pages or Numbers.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I had heard of Keynote, but not Pages or Numbers.

Sadly, as an Apple user all the way back to the II and Visicalc, I can only say that Pages and Numbers do not represent the company's finest hour...

 

[redhed17]

Sadly, as an Apple user all the way back to the II and Visicalc, I can only say that Pages and Numbers do not represent the company's finest hour...

I initially went to the Apple website after the post above, but there was no mention of any software I could see on their site. I know there are various programs included with the OS, but I couldn't see anything mentioned. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

 

[Pound Coin]

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Mac / Productivity