Microsoft Office gets a new competitor in the form of JUST Office

It seems like Microsoft is going to face a little competition in getting its Office productivity suite into every single Windows PC, at least where Japan is concerned. A major Japanese software development company known as JustSystems has announced a new office productivity suite, JUST Office, which is said to be compatible with most of the features found in Microsoft Office 2003, but at a much lower cost.

Microsoft Office may be the de-facto software which many people will swear by when it comes to office productivity applications, but even the software giant, with its vast amounts of talent and resources, have often found it hard to capture a significant share of the pie in various niche markets.

And judging by the latest software developments going on in Japan, it seems that Microsoft Office is going to have to go up against some real competition in the Land of the Rising Sun. This is because a well-known Japanese software development company known as JustSystems has announced the introduction of a new office productivity suite, JUST Office, which is intended for corporate users.

Details about JustSystems’s new productivity suite are sparse, but what we do know is that JUST Office is reportedly compatible with most features found in Microsoft Office 2003, but will be sold at a much lower cost than what Microsoft is currently asking for from corporate users. And in addition to having built-in support for various Japanese input systems, JustSystems claims that JUST Office will also be compatible with the OOXML format which is currently being used by Office 2007 and Office 2010. This will supposedly allow users to make a seamless transition from Microsoft’s software to JUST Office with minimal compatibility issues, if at all.

Of course, going head to head against the software giant in an area which the latter has been known to offer the superior product may sound like corporate suicide, but one must remember that JustSystems is no stranger to competition from Microsoft. In fact, JustSystems is well-known in Japan for managing to remain competitive in the local market despite having to face extremely strong competition from Microsoft and its Office productivity software throughout the 1990s. And if anything, it is highly possible that JUST Office will be just as well-received as JustSystem’s other productivity software such as the Ichitaro word processor and Hanako graphics software.

JUST Office is expected to be released “this summer” and will be a Japan-only exclusive.

Source: ITmedia NEWS