J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

No Ads In Office 14 Client Aps

Contrary to what you might have read: Relax, Office 14 client applications will not have ads.

Some folks are up in arms over what Microsoft Business Division Chief Stephen Elop said today during a presentation to analysts at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference:

"There will be ad-based revenue streams. There's an opportunity to draw those pirate customers into the revenue stream. We want to draw them into the Windows family and maybe there's an upsell opportunity later," according to Silicon Alley Insider. Elop wasn't lying, but he certainly did not reveal anything new.

I have no idea how ads relate to software piracy, but I assume Elop knows what he's talking about.

As ZDNet noted, we've known that Microsoft was working on both ad-supported and subscription-based Web application versions of Office 14 since PDC 2008. Just to make sure though, I e-mailed Microsoft for clarification and got the following response back from a Microsoft spokesperson: "We offer services through Office Live today that take advantage of both ad-funded and subscription offerings. As we announced last year at PDC, we will deliver Office Web applications, which will be available with the next version of Office, to consumers through this service. We have nothing more to share at this time."

So I guess my really, really old joke isn't coming true.