Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition will begin shipping on new PCs with an ad-supported revenue model until a user buys a key to the full version. This new strategy offers the limited functionality of Works with the annoyance of ad interruptions.

The move to a free ad-supported move isn’t a complete surprise. What is surprising is that many people were expecting a Web-based version of Microsoft Office as the starter edition.

In fact, Office 2010 Starter edition actually has all the features of the full version, but some are turned off until you buy a license. Buying the license puts an end to the advertisements and unlocks the full feature set of Office 2010.

Microsoft has been looking for a way to compete with Google Apps which offers free Docs and Spreadsheets applications that run online. While Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets have less functionality than Microsoft Office, small businesses can use them for free with no interruptions.

Now Microsoft is competing at the same price point as Google, but heaps on both more features and more annoyances. This raises the question of whether there is room in the middle of the market for Microsoft to thrive.

In either case you have a slimmed down feature set. However many won’t appreciate being interrupted by ads while trying to crank out important work documents.

Much remains to be seen about how and when Office 2010 will serve ads to users. For example a quick ad during startup might not be so bad, but a pop-up during a VC pitch is a whole other story.

The fact is that people are much more accustomed to seeing ads while surfing the Web, not while using applications on their own computers. The industry has a term for this kind of application and that word is adware.

Would you rather use Office 2010 Starter with ads or a less-robust Google Docs and Spreadsheets? Leave your answer in the comments.

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Entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 9:55 am under Malware, Microsoft, Software.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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