* What does $1.50 buy you at Microsoft.com?
For years people have gotten cheap laughs by claiming that Microsoft stress tests its beta software by boxing it up and selling it at retail. That’s not quite true although the reality might come as a bit of a surprise. Just think of the actual process, especially for operating systems:
1) Alpha software (released internally).
2) First beta (released to a small set of users).
3) Second beta (released more widely).
4) First Release Candidate (released to most beta testers).
5) Second Release Candidate (released more widely).
6) Customer Preview (released to anyone who requests it).
The first Release Candidate (RC) is really the last beta. And the Customer Preview is a version of the RC. Eventually, the RC becomes the retail version. So it really is “beta software” but with the testing and monitoring code removed. The process has always been that way, and it’s that way for almost all software vendors. Microsoft isn’t doing anything new there.
But Microsoft did try something new recently.
When Redmond first noticed that lots of people wanted to get their hands on pre-release software, it came up with the Customer Preview Program (CPP). This gave you (for a cost of from $5 to $20) a CD of an RC of the software along with electronic documents, manuals and white papers to help you get it installed and running. This was a good way for IT departments to get a jumpstart on testing new versions in their network labs before planning a rollout.
With some smaller applications, Microsoft simply allowed anyone to download the RC software for no charge.
Recently, Microsoft decided to allow folks to download a beta version (that is, earlier software than an RC) of the next version of Microsoft Office. I got an e-mail (and you may have also) in mid-June headlined: “Test the 2007 Microsoft Office system now: Get the beta.” It went on to say “Evaluate the next release of Microsoft Office products for testing and planning purposes with 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2. This beta release contains all the functionality of the regular release, but is not the final product,” and gave me a link to download the software. As I was just about to leave on vacation, I didn’t take advantage of the offer. But evidently, a lot of people did. Going to the Web site now and you’re met with the message:
“We are thrilled with the incredible excitement around the upcoming 2007 Microsoft Office system as is evident by nearly 3 million people using the Beta 2 since its release two months ago. Having exceeded our Beta 2 technical participation goals we are now offering this on a cost recovery basis for future downloads of Beta 2.”
In other words, the guys were sitting around one day and noticed that a) lots of people wanted beta software and b) many were willing to pay for it (based on the CPP responses)! So you can now download beta software, lots of beta software, for $1.50 per package. Currently available are:
* Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
* Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007
* Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager
* Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
* Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
* Microsoft Office Groove 2007
* Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007
* Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 – German
* Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Enterprise
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Enterprise (x64)
* Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007
* Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 (x64)
* Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
* Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (x64)
There might be things there that you’re willing to spend a buck-fifty to try, at least that’s what Redmond thinks. Just suppose that half of those who downloaded the Office Beta for free were willing to fork out $1.50 for it. Then further suppose that half of those folks went out to spend $1.50 for another beta package. That would mean more than $3.25 million in revenue – from beta software! P. T. Barnum would have loved Microsoft.
