14 DAY TRIAL // China has made another important step in moving away from Microsoft software by banning the Office productivity suite, only one month after the country decided to make Windows 8 a forbidden product on government computers.
A report published today by CRI reveals that the central government has asked a number of departments to stop using Microsoft Office and instead go for locally-developed productivity suits, such as the one belonging to Kingsoft, which also tries to compete with Redmond in this particular market.
While no clear details have been provided, it's pretty obvious that Microsoft is losing ground in China, which remains one of the largest markets across the world.
Even though piracy levels in China are still high, Microsoft clearly sees the local market as a big opportunity, so the company continues negotiations with local authorities to make sure that its products, including Windows 8 and Office, get a chance to be installed on government computers.
The company told us in a statement last month that while Windows 8 is indeed forbidden on government computers, Windows 7 is still available, so it's offering this particular OS version as a replacement until all discussions come to a conclusion.
“We were surprised to learn about the reference to Windows 8 in this notice,” the company said in a mailed statement.
“Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Center and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements. We have been and will continue to provide Windows 7 to government customers. At the same time we are working on the Window 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies.”
People close to the matter previously hinted that the Windows 8 ban is mostly China's very own payback after the software giant pulled the plug on Windows XP. China has only recently moved government computers to genuine copies of Windows XP, so country officials considered that Microsoft should at least provide extended support in order to keep them protected after such a difficult upgrade process.
Microsoft obviously refused to do so and explained that China, just like any other country out there, needs to upgrade computers to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and, if they really want extended support, they should pay for it. The Chinese officials responded by blocking Windows 8 in the country and pushing local departments to an open-source alternative that would gradually replace all Windows installations.