Microsoft loses Money – or at least drops it down the back of the sofa
First Encarta, now Money. What other high profile products will Microsoft kill off in the near future? The company has confirmed plans to discontinue Microsoft Money at the end of this month. Which in he middle of a recession is surely a questionable decision.
Microsoft has been trying to cut waste and lighten the load of poorly-performing products. In March, Microsoft announced that Encarta was getting the chop after failing to maintain a presence in this post-Wikipedia world. And now MS Money is getting the same treatment for similar reasons.
CNET first reported that Money was being dropped before Microsoft officially confirmed the news on its Web site. The company used the opportunity to explain its reasons for this decision.
With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. We would like to thank the many dedicated users who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Money over the years, as well as our partner financial institutions who helped pioneer a digital vision of financial management.
As a result of this increasing range of options making the 17-year-old Money surplus to requirements, Microsoft will stop selling the product on June 30, 2009. Support for existing customers using the product will continue until at least January 2011. At that time, the online data feeds for transactions and dealings will cease to occur automatically, although people will still be able to maintain their accounts manually.
The writing was on the wall as early as last year when Microsoft pulled Money from retail shelves and began only selling it as an Internet download. However, the decision to ax the product entirely must have been more recent because the company stated at the time that it would continue to produce and sell Money for the foreseeable future.
This kind of product culling is inevitable when a lot of the services Microsoft offers on disc for a hefty price are available online for free. Encarta was the beginning and I doubt Money will be the end.
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June 14th, 2009
“With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed.”
Disruptive technologies, disruptive technologies, disruptive technologies, disruptive technologies!
“However, the decision to ax the product entirely must have been more recent because the company stated at the time that it would continue to produce and sell Money for the foreseeable future.”
Seriously now, what sort of time frame would be “foreseeable” for MS senior management? Perhaps a week, or at best a month?
“This kind of product culling is inevitable when a lot of the services Microsoft offers on disc for a hefty price are available online for free. Encarta was the beginning and I doubt Money will be the end.”
Microsoft is on a slippery slope, and it is reasonable to expect that their situation will gradually worsen over time. It’s most interesting watching all this unfold.
June 14th, 2009
Windows 7 will probably be the last OS that rakes in the amount of money it will for Microsoft.
After that, money they receive from Windows and Office will surely decline as free software becomes more and more prevalent.
Everyone should check out “After The Software Wars” by ex Microsoft employee Keith Curtis, who basically says the paid software model will become doomed.
lulu.com/content/4964815