The software giant Microsoft, a day after being hit by a court confirmation of an earlier ruling by the European Commission regarding market competition violations that entail substantial financial and other penalties, has found itself facing increased competition for its Office software.
Google and IBM have announced an intensification of their efforts to compete with Microsoft’s software, which is dominant in the market for personal and office productivity software. IBM has announced the launch of Lotus Symphony, a portfolio of free software tools for creating and sharing documents, as well as spreadsheet applications and presentations. These tools, which include Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheet, and Lotus Symphony Presentations, support desktop computers with installed Windows and Linux programs and are designed to perform most common office tasks.
Lotus Symphony also supports multiple document formats, including Microsoft Office and ODF (Open Document Format), and can export content in the popular PDF format. Google has launched a new presentation option for its popular Google Docs application suite. Designed to compete with Microsoft PowerPoint, this new option allows for collaborative real-time publishing of presentations. Users can follow the displayed slideshow while simultaneously chatting via Google Talk. This option is offered in 25 languages. (H)
