China-made software suite Kingsoft WPS Office 2003 will replace Microsoft Office applications in Shanghai public schools from Sept. 1, according to Shanghai's education officials.
The ruling come just after a similar announcement by officials stating that all civil service PCs will gradually adopt WPS Office.
The Shanghai Education Research Center signed a contract with Chinese software company Kingsoft a week ago to buy the company's WPS Office 2003 software. The center acquires software for public schools in the city, and has notified each school of the change, reported China news Web site, china.org.cn.
Most schools have removed Microsoft Office programs to make way for the Chinese-developed software. Also, a new computer textbook containing little content about Microsoft Office will be used from next month onwards. The domestic-made office suite is cheaper, at half the price of Office XP.
The Beijing-based company has also scheduled special activities for this project, such as launching online examinations through the schools' local area network. The company also plans to market its WPSOffice 2003 on the last day of this month, at the retail price of US$156, compared with Microsoft office XP's US$464.52.
The move to snub Microsoft comes after the software giant asked the Shanghai Education Commission to buy licenses for the office suite on every school computer. Several schools in the city were earlier raided for using pirated versions of the software, said the report.
Kingsoft's marketing manager of WPS business unit, Xia Ji, said that the company will market its software at highly discounted prices as schools are often limited in funds, according to the report.
WPS, while being promoted by the government, is unlikely to fully replace the use of Microsoft Office in the civil service in the near future, said Dorothy Yang, research director for software and services at research firm IDC China, in a report. Foreign vendors are also not likely to be fully excluded from government contracts.
Analysts and other sources have said that transition to WPS and other local software will be gradual as too many systems in the Chinese government now depend on Microsoft Windows and Office.
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way to go! drop them immediately and teach those fat redmond executives some lesson in life.
Posted by anonymous on Wednesday, August 27 2003 02:22 AM