It makes sense for SUNW to give it away. It's brilliant. Here's why:
Others, like Corel, who have sold their software for productivity never got off the ground. Even worse, it was a big black hole for them (a loser). Now, by giving the StarOffice suite away for free, SUNW gets market share out there to all those folks who cannot buy MS office or pirate it. Plus the way they have it set up, any vendor who sells StarOffice or rents its use has SUNW as its business partner in the deal. Wait, it doesn't stop there.
SUNW will sell more storage, servers and most lucrative, SERVICE to handle a web centric version called StarPortal which will be operated by ISP's, ASP's, libraries, Universities, governments, military etc. So it fits very nicely into SUNW's grand plan.
Now you ask, why does SUNW not sell the program? Answer, because they have figured the numbers, and they come out a huge and guaranteed WIN for them.
Look for MSFT to copy. But not to worry, SUNW will sell the servers for their product on the web too. |
