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Microsoft Invents $1.15/Hour Homework Fee For Kids
Posted by
timothy
on Sat Dec 27, 2008 04:04 PM
from the defining-the-edge-of-invention dept.
from the defining-the-edge-of-invention dept.
theodp writes "Microsoft's vision of your computing future is on display in its just-published patent application for the Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience. The plan, as Microsoft explains it, involves charging students $1.15 an hour to do their homework, making an Office bundle available for $1/hour, and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun. In addition to your PC, Microsoft also discloses plans to bring the chargeback scheme to your cellphone and automobile — GPS, satellite radio, backseat video entertainment system. 'Both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model,' concludes Microsoft, while conceding that 'the supplier can develop a revenue stream business that may actually have higher value than the one-time purchase model currently practiced.' But don't worry kids, that's only if you do more than 52 hours of homework a year!"
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In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Said S.Balmer "Things are lookin' up!"
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
MS has announced they will not enter the online porn industry until they can determine a way to charge by the erection
Man, talk about gettin' stiffed.
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
$1 per erection is too cheap, they get get an _average_ of $6.15 per-erection charging by inch. Or in my case, about $9.00
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is there no "Don't Go There (-1)" moderation option?
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The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Funny)
Am I the only one who finds it pretty funny that Microsoft's response to piracy of Office (which, I would guess, is most popular among students) markets their $60 version, repeatedly, as a "steal?"
Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because someone is in college doesn't mean that they are in the know, and realize that choice even exists. The other thing is that Microsoft cleverly charges considerably less for "student" versions of their software, getting kids hooked early. A buddy of mine picked up a student copy of Office 2007 for $60, where as I think as a company we pay close to $400 per seat for a VLK.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenOffice is far from perfect. The UI isn't going to wow anyone. It is slow and clunky. That being said, I would say it is a fair competitor to Office 2003 and Office 2000. Office 2007 is a different beast. Some love the ribbon interface, and some hate it. I'm curious how you feel Office 2003 kicks OpenOffice down the road.
OpenOffice supports more file formats, provides basically all the features of Office 2003, and handles PDF import/export as well.
I really don't believe there is any great disparity between the two products. Both have a few faults and advantages.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Informative)
OpenOffice 3 simply feels clunky and is slow. That's enough to make me say that Office 2003's far superior. I responded to the next post down from yours with specifics, but to sum it up: Calc sucks compared to Excel (formulas act weird in comparison, poor macro support for Office files--and yes, that's a requirement), Impress sucks (while PowerPoint presentations suck in principle, it's a really good program when compared to Impress, and that should shame the Impress developers), and Draw sucks if it's supposed to be an alternative to Publisher (it's not necessarily, but it's the closest thing in the suite).
Oh, and what I forgot below--it doesn't play with SharePoint. Not their fault, but I use SharePoint because it's a very useful piece of software, and the integration with Office is very handy.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
MS's current office suites will eventually be too old (file formats stop getting used, stop getting patches, etc). The pay-as-you-go service is prohibitively expensive. But OpenOffice and the rest can only get better, if only because they all use the same file format and therefore users have no reason to stay with a poor product when one of the others surpasses it.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
IMO trying to force people into subscriptions and/or pay by the hour is likely to cause many people to like you say screw it and either take the pain of moving to alternatives or stick with old versions (many are doing that anyway) and pirate extra copies if they can't get them legally.
And if too many people say screw it then the network effects advantage that keeps ms office alive will disapear (while ooo is a bloated pig that can be made up for with extra hardware)
Despite this patent I don't think MS is suicidal enough to make subscriptions/pay by the hour the only option.
Though IIRC MS is trying to use the carrot of lower prices and other side benifits to tempt corporations and academic institutions into subscriptions deals that they then become basically stuck with.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Interesting)
So 20 people leave their PCs on with the screen saver before they go on a two-week vacation, don't notice they still have documents open somewhere, and they get back a bill of $1.25 X 16 days (2 weeks plus the extra weekend) X 24 hours X 20 people, or $9,600.00.
That will happen exactly ONCE before they all switch to anything else ... at that point, even vim or pico look better.
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How about a stray process? (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent point. Unless MS isn't charging for the time in-between keystrokes. In which case their pricing scheme might be worth it. =)
Which reminds me of something. I've closed Word on my work machine before when I've had a document open on a USB stick. Then try to USB eject the stick and it won't go. Go into task manager and see that some word-ish program still has an open handle on it.
Run task manager, kill the exe, and I can eject the USB drive. No real problem but it raises a question: What if this stray process was billing me?
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:4, Interesting)
Try Open Office for Mac which is very fast. Recently released with real Mac integration and NeoOffice will soon be dust in the wind.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but I have to agree with the parent. I have a nice legal copy of Office 2K I picked up at work ages ago and it runs rings around OO.o. Now that doesn't mean I don't hand out OO.o to everyone who brings in a PC and doesn't have an office suite, because for most it is fine. But I tend to be a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kind of guy and if a machine performs well i tend to keep it for a long time. This 1.1GHz Celeron with 512Mb of RAM running Win2K makes a GREAT netbox, fast for web surfing and downloading without sucking lots of power or heating up the apartment. But trying to use OO.o, even the older versions was frankly painful. With Office 2K it launches almost instantly even with the quickstarter disabled.
So if you are just wanting something free or have a fast box then I would go with OO.o, but if you are running something a little slower(and considering how netboxes and netbooks are taking off this is a problem IMHO) then Office 2K or 2K3 is just a better choice IMHO. On this machine it is less than 4 seconds to start a new doc with Office 2K, whereas it is closer to 20 with OO.o 2.X and closer to 30 with OO.o 3.0. So while I have nothing against OO.o and frankly will take it any day over Office 2K7 and that damned ribbon, for me Office 2K/2K3 just beats the pants off of it for performance.
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:4, Funny)
"The big thing IMO is using a consistant (and at least in the case of MS office consistant means the same version, I dunno if openoffice is better about keeping thier layout engine consistent between versions) office suite both among machines you use and between the machines you use and the machines people you work with use.
Sure for simple documents conversions are possible but for complex documents wysiwyg word processing basically relies on everyone having a layout engine with the exact same behaviour (pdf gets arround this by doing a lot of the layout in advance but this loses editability).
So if thier lecturers all use office 2003 and the uni machines all have office 2003 then the path of least resistance is to use office 2003 on thier own machine(s). Whether they buy it at the academic discount price or pirate it depends on thier circumstances beliefs (some universities even have a subscription which allows students to install it on thier own machines without paying)
plus at least here in the uk they will probablly have used at least one of office 2K, office XP or office 2K3 at school or "6th form college" before they went to university.
plus at least in my experiance openoffice is a bloated pig compared to office 2K to 2K3.
I have not yet used office 2K7 on a serious enough basis to comment on whether it is more or less shit than openoffice. It is certainly very different from both openoffice and older versions of MS office.
Too much rum int eggnog? :-)
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Re:The Ultimate Steal? (Score:5, Funny)
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New model? (Score:5, Interesting)
'Both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model'
Only Microsoft could try to call a business model 'new', when hotels and hookers have used it for centuries.
At least its obvious what they are now
Re:New model? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, at least it's a nice hotel.
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Re:New model? (Score:5, Funny)
Um, we're talking about Microsoft here. It might be an *expensive* hotel, but I'm not sure I'd call it a *nice* hotel...
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Re:New model? (Score:4, Insightful)
'Both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model'
Only Microsoft could try to call a business model 'new'...
That's the part of that business model that you have a problem with? That they're calling it "new"?
The real problem in my mind is that really, it's either the user *or* the supplier that will benefit, but not both. Because the question is, will the user end up paying more when you calculate all the charges, or will they end up paying less? If they end up paying less, then the users benefit and the suppliers lose money. If they pay more, then the suppliers make more money but the users lose money.
There are plenty of other problems with this model, but certainly it won't benefit both suppliers and users.
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Yet another excuse not to do homework (Score:5, Insightful)
"Teacher I didn't get my assignment done. It was either buy food or rent MS Word for three hours, and I didn't want to starve."
Billing for fun and profit (Score:5, Insightful)
and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun
As long as they only bill you while you're actually having fun, I'd imagine that this would be a good deal for many of today's games.
Pretty Remarkable (Score:5, Insightful)
They have some moxie, don't they?
I guess this would be successful, but it pretty much guarantees that all of your customers will hate you, even as they pay you. So really, it's a horizontal move for Microsoft.
As long as computing is as desperately cheap as it is, with $300 computers and free office suites, it's hard to see how they could make this work as a business model.
Re:Pretty Remarkable (Score:5, Insightful)
it's hard to see how they could make this work as a business model.
I think your confusion come from applying your own reasoning to the world at large.
But if I may give a reprieve to your doubts about the viability of this, may I suggest you introduce yourself to a few more CEO's. You may find their approach somewhat 'illogical'. But then again, just look around. Do you think the financial crisis we are facing now was based on 'logical' decisions by these same CEO's?
To many in 'business', being free means cheap. There are people who honestly believe that simply by paying more for something, it means its 'better'.
Money( a medium of exchange for items) and Wealth(the actual items or quality of services themselves that are deemed 'of value') are NOT the same thing, but there are many people who cant tell the difference.
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Re:Pretty Remarkable (Score:4, Interesting)
The CEO all made the decisions that were in the best interest of their company
If that was actually true, we wouldnt be here. The word you are looking for in that sentence isnt 'company' the word you are looking for is 'bond-holders'.
The free market does not exist, its a concept invented and held onto by irresponsible people who need something to point at when they fail. Because, its not THEIR fault afterall...
Since they can't see what every other CEO is doing behind closed doors, they can't factor that in.
That line of thought can certainly be called many things, but logical is not one of them. Do you really think being a CEO involves simply wearing a suit and having a good smile? There are actually numbers that get put in those 'behind closed doors' formulas. When it comes to the bottom line, EVERYTHING is a known. To think that this all just came up out of the blue and took all these people by surprise is the height of ignorance. What those idealistic CEOs actually saw when looking at the numbers was EXACTLY what was going on behind closed doors, and they thought 'hey if that place can do that and get away with it, so can we.' and so on... and so on... and so on... well you get the idea. Greed isnt a difficult concept to grasp, and I think you know that. Unfortunately, we are now 'enabling' those who got caught up in greed. As if to say 'dont worry, we know you just made some bad choices and none of this was really your fault'. If the free market existed, the idea would be to eliminate those whos choices caused a problem in which the company would fail. But thats not what we are doing, and it really is the height of irony that we are proclaiming to be supporting the free market, by taking away one of its supposed fundamental pillars. That of the best wins, is no longer true. It is now, that of the biggest wins.
Now, these CEO's who took the risks and failed, have the feeling that there is no longer any risk. They didnt feel the needed reprecussions of a bad decision, which means they didnt LEARN what the failure was. If that is to be our countries reaction to this type of situation... then we can just consider the past 18 months 'practice'. You take a little while to think about that, and I mean REALLY think about it, and come back and tell me where you think it ends.
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Re:More amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Alright (Score:5, Insightful)
What's in it for the consumer?
Do you supply a top-of-the-line PC and internet connection for us gamers? It might be worth it then, provided we don't game too much.
Do you supply a flexible, strong, compatible laptop for the school crowd? It might be worth it then, provided you don't provide incentives to universities or schools to dump more homework on the poor students.
What about the in-car entertainment system? Cell phones?
If I'm buying the equipment, I'm not going to pay monthly for something I currently get for free. The consumers, even the dumb ones, will be looking for alternatives. If no better alternatives exist, they'll be created.
In short, I hope Microsoft does launch this nice program, hopefully with the backing of the law, and other absurd things so we can watch the anvil break the camel's back.
Re:Alright (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course consumers will benefit! Microsoft has just announced the first truly-effective open-source promotion policy in the history of the american computing industry. We should be saluting this, but instead, the microsoft bashers on slashdot are reflexively criticizing them.
"Seriously": Consumers will benefit because they will pay proportional to their actual use, which more efficiently distributes the costs. Thus, those who can afford to pay more will do so, and those who can't won't, which is always good if you are a bizarro-world inverse-marxist ideologue, a.k.a. "free market theorist."
Oh, also, higher profits for microsoft will drive them to innovate.
This is the same reason that coupons are good for the economy - those with enough money don't bother and just pay the higher prices. The time and energy people spend clipping coupons has zero cost - likewise, artificially restricting computer use by introducing significant marginal costs is a zero loss to the economy if you are a corporate tool.
The fact that there are economists who actually believe crap like the above tells you that economics really is the dismal science.
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Re:Alright (Score:4, Insightful)
In short, I hope Microsoft does launch this nice program, hopefully with the backing of the law, and other absurd things so we can watch the anvil break the camel's back.
There have been many times in my life when I've said this same sort of thing about decisions I've seen others make. I believe I've seen people say similar things on Slashdot about other decisions Microsoft has made in the last decade. So far, opportunities to say "See! I told you so," have been sparse.
The thing is that the universe appears to be fairly forgiving to makers of decisions we think are dumb. Microsoft is still around, and people are still handing them piles of cash every year, despite all the predictions of doom.
I think that if Microsoft succeeds with this pay-as-you-go program, it will be because there are more ignorant people out there than we suspect.
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Re:Alright (Score:4, Insightful)
Since when does Microsoft care about that? The real issue is that Microsoft has discovered that they may be able to lock people into Windows and Office, but they can't force people to buy new versions. Their "customers" will just keep on using Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and then Microsoft only gets a cut when someone buys a new computer, if that. And then, even then, they have to cut the price of their software for the OEMs, and so they aren't making the sort of money they like.
It would be suicide, nothing less. Customers resoundingly rejected this sort of system with DivX [wikipedia.org], and they'll do so again. People aren't completely opposed to subscriptions when they feel enough value is offered for the money [worldofwarcraft.com], though.
In business, nothing is more attractive to a bottom line than subscriptions. Yearly guaranteed profits, nice and predictable. Nothing is scarier to a business than spending millions on a product that people may or may not want. But money is a better feedback mechanism for a business than almost anything else.
Honestly, though, I just can't see them being quite that stupid, at least not in the foreseeable future. Just because subscriptions are a wet dream for the financial department doesn't mean marketing won't stick their finger in the wind to see if people would actually go for such a scheme. People have been predicting this sort of stuff for years, and it never happens. It works at the large-scale enterprise level (it's probably advantageous there, since it's a known and regular expense), but it would be disastrous at any smaller scale.
Still, it would be fun to see them try.
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When two is better than one (Score:5, Insightful)
And ads - don't forget ads...lots and lots and lots of ads.
Seriously, when is MS going to get off the same old profit-stump? Is there no one inside that company that can imagine fresh ways to make money besides licensing? Will MS ever come out of the ice age they fostered and find something to sell that the world actually looks forward to paying for?
Despite what MS would wish, software isn't a utility product that spins a meter at the sidewalk. It isn't a consumable that requires a refill after every trip to the coast. It isn't a treat that changes flavor every month according to some designer whim.
Software is part of a process. A process that can be solved by many means and anyone willing to devote the time. It doesn't come out of a strip mine in the Congo...market it according to the market, not to your desire to fill coffers and it will make money - I promise.
interesting new model... (Score:5, Insightful)
and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun
Can we get a refund for a game if we play said without having said fun?
Behold the Cloud! (Score:5, Funny)
The user jacks his credit card into our system.
We store user input.
We process user input.
We output processed data back to the user.
We suck money out of the user's credit card account.
Behold the cloud!
Depends on the options (Score:5, Insightful)
If this is going to be the only option, then it's crappy and destined to fail. But if this is going to be an additional option to purchasing Office (which I think is more the case) it may still fail, but is at least a decent idea. Most students use Office only for homework that requires it. If that is the only time you use it, what makes more sense, paying $200 for the full Office suite that you will rarely use (and definitely won't use half the programs) or paying $50 for the 50 hours you actually use it(which is probably being generous in the time students actually use Office)? And factor in that if you have an older computer, Office may run slowly versus this online version which (if done properly) should run smooth as long as you have good internet access.
If this is an additional choice, I think this may be a decent idea (though I don't think it will be a hit).
Re:Depends on the options (Score:4, Informative)
How about using say..Wordpad? It comes with Windows, so its not an additional expense. Has decent features and is very usable. Also you don't have to re-learn it every year.
Or Open Office, perhaps?
Hell, even notepad.
I've never purchased a copy of MS Office and I don't use it at home. I use Open Office at home, and MS Office on the computers at school and work.
Parent
So how do they make sure I actually pay? (Score:5, Interesting)
free for kids (Score:5, Interesting)
Office is already $60... (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft is already offering MS Office Ultimate for a one-time cost of $60. Why in the hell would I want to rent the same damn thing per hour and turn it into a $2000+ piece of software?
I don't get it. Every time I turn around, Microsoft seems to be trying to take one step forward...into another pile of shit idea.
If this doesn't send their users screaming towards (free) alternatives like Google Docs, I don't know what will...
Pardon me will I go don my Ballmer signature-series chairproof helmet...
Computing 101 Homework (Score:5, Insightful)
Assignment #1
Locate, download, and install Open Office.
Patent application != model for future. (Score:5, Interesting)
This whole summary is a troll. Technology businesses file many patents every year that they'll never implement. Patents are like munitions. You stockpile them in case you need to go to war, and to prevent others from attacking you. Balmer's saber rattling about Linux infringing on multiple Microsoft patents is the perfect example of this. (Though it's an example of the more sinister uses of patents).
Vendor Neutrality in Schools (Score:4, Insightful)
Yet another reason to protest and refuse when a school mandates a particular application for 'home work' ( unless its a class about that particular package of course ).
A word processor to write a term paper is not just 'Microsoft Word'.
do it and see your marketshare moving to GNU/Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:8 cores, 3 Gb, 3 GHz? (Score:5, Interesting)
My kid has been told many times just to copy and paste from Wikipedia, I mean told by his teachers. Its most distressing.
I have brought the issue up at his school in meetings, but it seems that the tickbox teaching that the UK now relies upon is more interested in achieving teaching goals then actually educating the pupils.
Given that his IT class seems to really be 'how to use Microsoft products', I wouldn't be surprised if this service became part of the UK education provision system. Angry and disgusted yes, surprised no.
Lastly, dude, having a sig that would nuke a Linux system if applied isn't exactly friendly. On the other hand, I guess it would conform to the natural selection approach to weeding out morons, so perhaps its ok...
Parent
Re:8 cores, 3 Gb, 3 GHz? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:only one thing to say (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm. On the other hand, I just shelled out several hundred dollars for Adobe Illustrator, a program I need only for a few hours a year (but when I need it, I REALLY need it). If I had the option to pay an hourly rate OR purchase it outright, I'd have chosen the metering. Actually, a lot of apps are the same for me - including all of Microsoft Office. I use alternative word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation packages (or just do it in my text editor / LaTeX), but every now and then I do need to use Word or Excel.
Again, given that there will be alternatives that are not metered, a pay-for-use model for some of these monolithic, massively-priced apps might not be a bad thing.
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Re:only one thing to say (Score:5, Insightful)
Just food for thought.
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Re:only one thing to say (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:only one thing to say (Score:5, Informative)
Kinkos charges about $0.42 a minute to use their computers that have MS office preinstalled. I don't own a printer, but the 3 times a year I actually need something printed (like christmas card notes, for example) that I can't get away with at work, I email to myself and print at Kinkos. Office depot will go one step further you can email them the document and they'll print it at no additional charge on whatever paper you need.
/Printer free since 2000
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Re:Only 52 hours of homework? (Score:5, Funny)
I did far far less than 52 hours of homework a year.
Thinking about it, there may be a reason I failed high school..
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