Sun’s Staroffice 6.0 Shines But Not Too Brightly

Sun has finally announced pricing for its StarOffice 6.0 office suite and started making the new release available.  This is a very complicated announcement and the complications occur on a variety of issues, so we’ll look at them one at a time.

First, it seems appropriate to comment on the software itself.  We’ve had a look at 6.0 and as experienced (very experienced) Word users (we’ve been using it since its earliest days on the Macintosh) we’d have to say that

1.  It’s not as easy to use as Word 
   
   

2. It’s missing functions – many of which a casual user wouldn’t care about, but a few of which any experienced user may use.  Word processors are like that.  Any one user only uses about 10% of the function but above the 5% we all use we’re all using a different 5% for the rest; that means the products get really big to keep all of us happy.
   
   

3. It isn’t compatible with all of the Microsoft Office Suite applications.  Sun focused on being compatible with Word.  It’s a lot less compatible when it comes to spreadsheets and presentations.  More important is Sun’s failure to be entirely backward compatible with its own StarOffice 5.2 format.  Users must consciously save files back to the 5.2 format because 6.0 files can’t be read by the 5.2 software – this means that mixed environments are at least difficult and for large organizations would be very messy to support.  This is considered an amateur hour mistake in the user software world and big league players know better.

If you’d like to see another opinion about all this, we suggest you check out Walter Mossberg’s column in the May 16^th Wall Street Journal, which is all about StarOffice.  His bottom line:  it would be nice to have a competitor to Microsoft Office; this isn’t it.

I’d put it a bit differently.  It is unlikely that current Word users would want to trade in Word for StarOffice.  Any savings on software would be more than offset by the migration (read training and support) costs.  On the other hand, for new users in cost conscious environments like education, small business, and emerging markets (like China, Africa, and parts of Latin America), StarOffice could represent a good, low-cost choice, trading off some features and ease of use for lower cost.

The Linux Card

We’d expect it is in the Linux community that StarOffice will really shine.  There is no other Linux Office Suite which is distributed and supported by a major vendor, so at least for now this will be the automatic Linux choice.  It’s also a market where there is no interest in Microsoft software.  Of course, there is the question of whether they’ll be buying the priced version of StarOffice 6.0 or whether they will, Linux-like, go for the free OpenOffice version.  We expect lots of the latter.

Availability And Pricing 

StarOffice 6.0 will be available from Sun directly as well as from various reseller channels (including retail).  At retail it will be offered as a CD at $79.95, including its own documentation and a single help incident.  (We’d expect it to sell in the channel with the usual 10-15% discount.)

Corporate buyers will be able to buy StarOffice in volume, with support priced separately, at $25 to $50 per seat.  Sun will provide support through its usual support programs, at a variety of levels and price plans.

Sun claims huge differences between the price of StarOffice 6.0 at $79.95 or $25-50 and Microsoft Office XP with its list price of $579 (Pro) or $479 (Standard).  But even in single quantities it is commonly discounted to as little as $392 (for the more expensive Pro version).  And that’s only for new users.  With its huge penetration rate and market share, very few MS Office buyers are new users; most customers are buying upgrades $329 (Pro) or $239 (Standard), with discounts typically lowering prices by as much as another $50.  Volume customers, of course, pay significantly less and are generally buying upgrade licenses, not new licenses.  There are savings in using Sun StarOffice, but they are not as large as Sun claims.

But There Is Still Free Software 

Not everyone, however, needs to pay for StarOffice.  Educational users will continue to get the software for free.  (Microsoft offers educational users the Standard Edition of their Office Suite for $149.50.)  And anyone can have a free copy of “nearly” 6.0 by going to OpenOffice.org and downloading OpenOffice Release 1.0 which is the same code base as StarOffice 6.0 minus some fonts and drivers and their database software (which is licensed from elsewhere).

We had quite a lot of fun talking to the OpenOffice.org folks in preparation for writing this story.  There’s nothing as enthusiastic as a volunteer.  You might be interested to discover – as we were – that not all those Linux volunteers are coders.  Some of them make their contribution to the community by helping with public relations, marketing, or other chores. 

I have a feeling that we’re going to have to watch this two-track model that Sun has created carefully to see where it leads – I’m not sure that any of us understand the possibilities yet.

In the meantime, I have some advice for Sun:

	Look for customers who aren’t Word users – if you can find them.  Remember, most of them will be outside the U.S.
	Make StarOffice a lot friendlier.  Get rid of all the geeky parts of the interface.  You may like them but non-geek users won’t – they’ll either not use the product or add to the support costs.
	Figure out the economics of office work.  Buying the software is the cheapest thing anyone does.  All the costs are in the implementation and support.  That’s where customers want to save money.

The customer argument with Microsoft you’re hoping to leverage is less about charging too much and more about control; customers don’t want to be told when and how to buy software.  They want to be told what’s available and then make their own decisions about what to buy and how to use it.

Useful References

StarOffice Announcement http://www.sun.com/2002-0515/feature/index.html

StarOffice Support Group www.staroffice.com

OpenOffice.org  www.openoffice.org

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