Evermore and Microsoft

There was once a time when no one dared to challenge Microsoft. People were saying that it is no fun to launch new business since sooner or later, they would attract the attention of the giant. That was not too long ago, actually, just a few years.

Sun Microsystem challenged Microsoft - their Star Office was given away for free for a long period of time, on their webpage. We saw it as suitable flanking strategy to attack Microsoft straight at their heard. But Star Office hasn't gained enough traction to be a real challenge and the support it gets from Sun is not that impressive. But nevertheless.

Of course, many might still know Lotus Smartsuite - a beautiful program and an early leader in the office application which was badly blindsided by Microsoft's introduction of Windows.

Others were saying that many users would switch if someone would just develop a better product. And, oh yes, we shouldn't forget Linux - and its tremendous succes.

Okay - why so much of a talk? Well, there is something growing in China - a company called Evermore has, in three years of its existence, managed to challenge Microsoft in China (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/18/content_1475422.htm). China, which is already a challenge for Microsoft, since Linux is the preferred choice for many governmental run companies. Evermore is now launching a well functioning software suite in Simplified Chinese, American English and Japanese. Is founder and general manager, Gus Tsao, established the company three years ago, saying that he will defeat Microsoft - and as a result, was called crazy by people. But he did it, and a new battle has opened up for Microsoft. Disadvantage for Evermore? Its pricing strategy is pretty similar to what Microsoft offers. US$99 for an annual lease or US$249 for a three year lease. Well, apparently, not everything that comes from China needs to be dirt cheap to succeed. Let's see, what is happening!