“When was the last time anyone created a database from scratch? Those apps are dinosaurs,” Jeffrey Mincey writes for Bohemian Boomer. “That said, here’s another dinosaur and it’s about dead, too. Microsoft Office. The Windows maker’s cash cow has run into a wall whereby fewer and fewer people want to pay for what they get free.”
“Microsoft has been forced to giveaway Office on low end devices and it’s nearly free through subscriptions to Office 365. Why? Nobody wants to pay for a suite of Office-like apps when comparable versions are available for free,” Mincey writes. “Apple’s iWork, as close as a Mac can get to a home-grown Office suite, is free on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s even free online with an iCloud account.”
“What Microsoft is doing in the age of mobile devices is a game of Chicken. The company has almost no presence among mobile devices,” Mincey writes. “Most of Microsoft’s mobile apps are free, including Office, and the game of Chicken is about whether Microsoft can gain enough new subscriptions to online services faster than it loses revenue and profits as both Windows and Office decline in the market. It’s tough to compete against free. Apple does it well against Android, but, as usual, Apple is the exception to the rules.”
