The Times' Information Technology supplement Interface has been showing, once again, its ignorance of how the industry actually works and what is really going on.
Last week's front cover for the supplement was about "Bill Gates' [unveiling] his sharpest suite to date", which just about sums up their ignorance. Office97 and its predecessors are cash cows and what little room they had for innovation is all but gone. A two page spread was devoted to all the new features which really amounted to more wizards and animated help. Whoopie-do!
What about the shortage of IP addresses and names on the Internet? Or how about a chronic lack of skilled IT personnel in the UK? There are many more interesting subjects to discuss than merely taking part in Microsoft's thinly veiled marketing manoeuvres. They trumpeted the fact that Office97 would have a huge launch, bigger than any other Office suite before. What they don't say is that all this is necessary as office productivity suite sales are falling. Why buy Office97 or 95 when Word 6.0 works just fine? These upgrades are complex and expensive. Microsoft is actually truly worried that a major source of income will start become a feeble trickle from licenses to manufacturers as opposed to regular bulk buys from corporations.
So don't become another marketing statistic and upgrade, look to the future and worry about Netscape 4!
© 1997 j-dom Media. Contact us!
