順應雲時代 微軟提供免費移動版Office軟件

SEATTLE — Few golden geese in technology have survived as long as Office has for Microsoft.

西雅圖——在科技領域，像微軟Office那樣長盛不衰的搖錢樹寥寥無幾。

The suite of applications that includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, first released in 1990, generated nearly a third of Microsoft’s revenue during its last fiscal year — about $26 billion of $87 billion in total. By some estimates, the software accounted for an even higher portion of the company’s gross profits.

這套包括Word、PowerPoint和Excel的應用程序於1990年首次發佈，在上一財年裏，Office帶來260億美元的營收，幾乎佔了微軟總營收870億美元的三分之一。據估計，該軟件在微軟總利潤中的佔比更高。

But in a sign of the seismic changes underway in the tech industry, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, said on Thursday that it would give away a comprehensive mobile edition of Office. The free software for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets will do most of the most essential things people normally do with the computer versions of the product.

但本週四，全球最大的軟件公司微軟表示，它將免費提供Office的完整移動版；此舉是高科技產業正在發生翻天覆地變化的一個標誌。Office的免費iPad、iPhone和Android平板電腦版本，將會支持人們通常用Office計算機版本進行的大部分最基本工作。

Just a few years ago, giving away a full free version of Office would have earned a Microsoft chief executive a visit from a witch doctor. Now, the move is following through on the rallying cry coming from Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new chief executive, who has pushed cloud and mobile computing as lodestars for the company’s future.

就在幾年前，如果微軟首席執行官做出免費提供Office完整版的決定，人們會以爲他發了瘋。現在，這一舉措是在響應新任首席執行官薩蒂亞·納德拉(Satya Nadella)的號召。納德拉已經把雲計算和移動計算列爲該公司未來的發展方向。

The old Microsoft hemmed and hawed about creating Office apps for mobile platforms from Google and Apple, pushing its Windows platform instead. But the center of gravity in the tech industry has quickly shifted to mobile and cloud computing. And the company’s about-face comes after rivals like Apple and Google and many of the most successful new start-ups offered free software, often with premium perks for sale.

之前，對於爲谷歌和蘋果的移動平臺創建Office應用，微軟有些猶豫不決，它把精力放在了推動自己的Windows平臺上。但高科技業的重心已經迅速轉移到了移動和雲計算上。像蘋果和谷歌這樣的競爭對手，以及一些大獲成功的新興創業公司，都已經提供了很多免費的、但常常帶有付費高級功能的軟件，微軟這次改弦更張，就是在這樣的背景下進行的。

“Lots of consumers don’t need a PC,” said Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Securities. “They just need an Internet connection. They don’t need Office as much.”

“很多消費者並不需要一臺PC，”野村證券(Nomura Securities)分析師裏克·謝倫德(Rick Sherlund)說。“他們只需要設備連接上互聯網。他們不是非常需要Office。”

That reality has started to weigh on Office. While sales of the software to businesses grew about 8 percent last year, consumer revenue rose only 2 percent. Sales declined by double-digit percentage points during the first two quarters of the year.

這一現象已開始影響到Office。雖然該軟件面向企業的銷售額去年增長了8%左右，但從消費者那裏獲得的營收僅增長了2%。今年前兩個季度，Office銷量下滑的百分率達到了兩位數。

The Office business suffered in recent years from a global slump in sales of PCs, which were hurt as people began to do more and more basic computing chores on tablets and smartphones. For years, Office was not available on mobile devices, and many consumers began to wonder whether they needed the software at all. Those who needed productivity apps turned to free or cheap alternatives from Apple, Google and start-ups like Evernote.

近年來，人們日益用平板電腦和智能手機開展比較基本的計算任務，導致全球PC銷售下滑，也給Office業務帶來損失。多年來，Office一直沒有推出移動設備版本，許多消費者已經開始思考，自己是否真的還需要它。那些需要工作軟件的人，轉而開始使用蘋果、谷歌和Evernote等初創公司的免費或廉價替代品。

The outlook for Microsoft’s apps has improved in recent quarters with the growth of Office 365, a cloud version of the product that includes constantly updated apps, unlimited online file storage and free Skype calling to traditional phones. Consumers pay $7 to $10 a month for the service, rather than buying a copy of Office for about $150.

最近幾個季度，隨着Office365業績的增長，微軟應用的前景也獲得了改善。Office365是這個套件的雲版本，提供持續更新、不限量的在線文件存儲空間、免費的Skype電話撥打服務等等。消費者每月只需支付7至10美元的服務費，無需購買售價約150美元的Office。

“We’d like to dramatically increase the number of people trying Office,” John Case, corporate vice president of Office marketing at Microsoft, said about the new offering. “This is about widening the funnel.”

“我們希望能大幅增加嘗試Office的用戶人數，”微軟Office企業營銷副總裁約翰·凱斯(John Case)在談到免費版時表示。“關鍵是拓寬渠道。”

Microsoft started to suggest a more open posture earlier this year, when it released an iPad version of Office that could be used to read documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

微軟表現出更加開放的姿態，是從今年早些時候開始的，當時它發佈了iPad版的Office，可以用來讀取文檔、電子表格和演示文稿。

If users wanted to edit or print those documents, though, they needed to pay a subscription fee to Microsoft. Now Microsoft is doing away with those hindrances. It is starting to test similarly full-featured and free Office apps for tablets running Android, Google’s mobile operating system. And it is updating Office apps for iPhone to allow editing, at a time when Apple’s new big-screen smartphones are making it easier to get work done on the devices.

不過，如果用戶想編輯或打印這些文檔，就需要支付訂閱費給微軟。現在，微軟正在清除這些障礙。它正在開始測試同樣功能齊備而且免費的Android平板電腦版Office應用；Android是谷歌移動操作系統。它也正在更新iPhone版Office應用，以便提供編輯功能。蘋果新推出的大屏幕智能手機，讓一些工作任務變得更易完成了。

Microsoft says it has more than 7 million consumers subscribing to Office 365. It says there have been more than 40 million downloads of its Office apps for the iPad. In its most recent quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Microsoft said its consumer Office revenue grew 7 percent.

微軟表示，已經有逾700萬用戶訂閱了Office365，iPad版Office應用的下載量超過了4000萬次。微軟表示，在9月30日截至的最近一個季度裏，Office從消費者那裏獲得的營收增長了7%。

By making an unabridged version of Office available for free on mobile, Microsoft is betting it can get even more people to start using the software, without stealing sales from the PC and Mac versions of the product, where it still makes truckloads of money.

微軟認爲，通過免費提供完整的Office移動版本，會有更多的人開始使用Office軟件，而且也不會分流PC和Mac版Office的銷售額，計算機版Office仍然非常賺錢。

The calculation is similar to the one made by software makers in the mobile industry. Instead of the one-time fees long associated with software sales, most app makers give away basic versions of their products — from games to productivity software to online storage services — while charging for premium features.

這和移動領域軟件開發商的思路很相似。在軟件銷售業務中，長期以來費用都是一次性收取的，而大多數應用開發商都會免費提供產品——從遊戲到工作軟件，再到在線存儲服務，但只限基本功能，高級功能則會收取費用。

“We’re seeing the consumer valuation for those things start to approach zero,” said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a research firm that tracks the company.

“我們看到，消費者對軟件的估值開始趨近於零，”分析微軟狀況的研究公司Directions on Microsoft的分析師韋斯·米勒(Wes Miller)說。

Apple, for example, made its iWork suite of productivity applications free a year ago for new buyers of Macs and Apple mobile devices. Google has won converts to a free suite of Web apps that competes with Office.

以蘋果公司爲例，一年前，它開始爲Mac電腦和Apple移動設備的新顧客免費提供工作應用iWork套件。谷歌推出Web應用免費套件與Office競爭，也贏得了一些用戶。

Microsoft announced this spring that it would give away some versions of Windows, its other big cash cow, to hardware companies that want to put it on devices with screens smaller than nine inches.

Windows是微軟的另一棵大型搖錢樹，今年春天，微軟宣佈會把某些版本的Windows免費提供給那些希望將其搭載在9英寸以下設備上的硬件公司。

It was an attempt by Microsoft to claw its way out of a severe deficit in mobile by encouraging more companies to make Windows smartphones and tablets. Notably, the change in its terms did not include versions of Windows for personal computers, which have larger screens.

微軟企圖通過此舉來鼓勵更多的企業製造Windows智能手機和平板電腦，以彌補它在移動領域的嚴重不足。值得注意的是，該變化並不涉及屏幕更大的個人電腦所使用的Windows版本。