Microsoft's mobile version of Office is free: just to show its presence

Recently, Microsoft announced that its Office suite for iPad, iPhone and Android will be officially free. Previously, although iPad users could download the Office suite including Word, Excel and PowerPoint through Apple App Store, they had to pay for Office 365 subscription service (Office 365 Home Edition costs $100 per year and Personal Edition costs $70 per year) to create or edit files. With this free service, users will no longer need to use Office 365 subscription service to edit documents and store them in the cloud. So why would Microsoft release its proud productivity suite to its rivals' mobile platforms? What impact will this move have on Microsoft and the industry?

First of all, it should be noted that the so-called free mobile version of Office is mainly for the personal consumption market. According to relevant statistics, the revenue of all Microsoft Office products (including Office365 and traditional Office licensing model) in fiscal year 2014 was about 24 billion US dollars, of which only 3 billion US dollars came from the consumer market, and the rest came from the enterprise market, and the consumer market accounted for only 13%. It is not difficult to see that the free mobile version of Office will not have a substantial impact on the overall revenue of Microsoft Office.

In fact, as early as when Microsoft released the so-called free iPad version of Office (which also caused a sensation in the industry at that time), we believed that since users need to pay to subscribe to the Offcie365 service to obtain the minimum editing functions of Office, this makes the free Microsoft Office seem quite tasteless. After all, on the mobile platform, there are many options that can replace Microsoft Office, such as Apple's iWork office software that has been free for a long time; Google's Docs, etc. From this point of view, Microsoft has been clever in the mobile free version of Offcie before, as the saying goes, the mantis stalks the cicada, while the oriole is behind. The purpose of the free version of Office is to increase the subscribers of its paid Office365 service in disguise by taking advantage of the free gimmick. Although this move won a lot of downloads in the early stage, as users became more familiar with Microsoft's move and the free version of Office, its user growth number declined and did not meet Microsoft's expectations. In this regard, some comments also believe that Microsoft's previous strategy of stimulating the growth of paid Office with free Office has failed. It is precisely because of cleverness that Microsoft has made mistakes, so this free version has a strong meaning of Microsoft correcting its mistakes.

Nevertheless, as mentioned above, even the paid users who previously relied on Office365 had little impact on Microsoft's overall Office revenue, not to mention that this time it is completely free (no need to pay to become an Office365 subscriber). More importantly, due to the product form and attributes of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), the market and user demand for Office-like applications is not complicated. Although Microsoft has optimized Office for touch screens in order to allow users to have a good Office experience on mobile devices, what we want to say here is that in mobile devices, experience is important, but for Office-like applications, functionality is the key to determining whether users are willing to adopt or reflect the value of the software. Obviously, Office is a bit too "heavy" compared to similar software from its competitors. In other words, although Office is powerful, this power cannot be converted into a competitive advantage over its competitors in the mobile device market. As the saying goes, it is a waste of talent.

In this case, why does Microsoft still promote the free mobile version of Office? The industry knows that in the mobile device market, especially the smartphone market, Microsoft has tried hard and even spent a lot of money to buy Nokia's mobile phone business, but it has not been able to change the embarrassment of marginalization until today. The market and users still know or feel Microsoft's presence on Windows and Office. Since Windows is rarely seen by the market and users in smartphones, only Office is left. But unfortunately, due to the marginalization of Windows Phone, Office running on it will naturally be marginalized, so Microsoft can only show the market and users its presence in the mobile market through the platform of its rivals. Just like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about the different identities of Microsoft, Google and Apple at a press conference held on a university campus recently. In the mobile market, the platform (Windows Phone) has lost its identity authentication, and the only thing left to authenticate is productivity (Office).

Of course, we do not deny that the launch of the truly free mobile version of Office will deal a certain blow to similar software and services from rivals. However, as analyzed before, the application attributes of mobile devices and their proportion in Microsoft Office's overall revenue (besides, it is really free this time) will not have a substantial impact on Microsoft even if it suppresses rivals. Perhaps while Microsoft is increasing its presence in the mobile market, implanting Office into rivals' platforms will have a real advertising effect.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.