Supermarket Giant Now A Microsoft Competitor

from the add-'em-to-the-list dept

There's no doubt that Microsoft is under assault from a variety of attackers including Google, web-based software, and open source. As if it needed any more competition, it now has to do battle against a supermarket chain. Tesco, the UK's largest grocer, is planning on selling its own, private-label software for cheap. The store will offer a range of products including an office suite, an anti-virus tool, personal finance software, a CD/DVD burner, and a photo editing product. The company has also launched a site to sell and support the offering. Of course, Tesco isn't likely to carve a huge stake of the software industry, but the move is indicative of the fact that many of the basic consumer applications are rapidly commoditizing. Microsoft is obviously well aware of the changes going on, and is looking for new ways of distributing its consumer software, but it's hard to see the company coming upon anything that will adequately replace some of its most lucrative cash cows.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:29am

    Can I get a pricecheck in Aisle 3 for the antivirus software please?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Steve E, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:05pm

    I wouldn't underestimate the impact Tesco could have on the market. They're extremely good at marketing and their customer base is full of people who won't be particularly tech savvy so it should be a pretty easy sell at the prices they've been quoting (under £20 per software title).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:33pm

    Microsoft is the King and that's that. Companies should just sit back and let them continue to move us into the future.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Royalpeasantry, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:47pm

      Re:

      oohhh boy.. let the flaming commence....

      I'm not even going to bother doing it myself.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Me, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:47pm

    This is what needs to happen

    If a monopoly goes too long unchecked and unopposed then the quality of the product wil surely degrade. I am not saying that a supermarket will cause Bill to lose any sleep but the more of these little startup software companies the better.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The Man, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:49pm

    Quarter Pounder

    MS does not compete with the low cost (however much 20 pounds is) software vendor. Office is primarily a business and education app. Some cheap ass software is not going to rate, nor will it be compatible. Star Office never did crap to move into MS market and Office is still more expensive than it should be. Unfortunately it is a very good app and worth the money. As far as the other types of software, it will just be in the same market as all the other cheap software vendors. You can't go to any office store without tripping over no name anti-virus and picture software. I see nothing really innovative here, other than putting their name on it. Even that is not innovative; Grocery stores have put their name on toilet paper and other stuff for years. Just more of the same. By the way, I think Charmin is doing fine even though they are "competing with grocery stores"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bag Boy, 2 Oct 2006 @ 12:59pm

    Wet cleanup on aisle Redmond. That European ban on MS Office may be a factor.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tech Geek, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:17pm

    Good. Might put Bill on his toes for a bit! Although if its only tescos making these products, Bills not gonna lose sleep..... if more smaller companies made software, they might make their software bigger and better down at the labs of microsoft.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:25pm

    Microsoft got into the market because of the home users. Do not forget that. Windows/Office in the home is what makes people automatically put it in the office without checking competition and others.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Who Cares? We DO!, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:33pm

    I've been listening to "BILL BASHING" for years and if ever another platform takes over Microsoft in the future (Not in my lifetime) everyone will be screaming for application compatability AGAIN.
    "Oh I can't bring your doc in because your using this or that". ENOUGH, thank goodness this country is primairly using one damn product to communicate with.
    The Military not to long ago had over 300,000 DIFFERENT applications on 300,000 desktops, now we're down to maybe 1500 apps. Life is a bit easier with Bill I'd have to admit. (Although I don't want to, I must conceed)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:35pm

    Why even pay £20 for an office suite when openoffice does everything you need and more. Its ironic that the only reason openoffice doesnt have 90% market share is free software cant advertise. Oh well.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The Man, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:46pm

    Open Office

    It also does not help that Open Office sucks, is slow to run and full of bugs. I tried it, but free is not worth the effort. If you account for the extra time it takes to play around with Open Office, it comes out to be much more expensive than MS Office.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Not a prob for me, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:56pm

    Open Office

    I didn't know anything about MS Office but knew a lot of the things I couldn't open were from Office user. I downloaded Open Office and it has worked flawlessly. I'll give you it's a little slow to open but other than that no issues.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 2:04pm

    c'mon

    this is a pointless article. for one, as someone mentioned previously, there are a ton of cheap anti-virus, firewall, etc... software out there. another, this is going to go as far as k-mart internet service. a few moronic individuals will go for it and that will be that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    walt foster, 2 Oct 2006 @ 2:10pm

    OpenOffice -- StarOffice

    I wonder why my experience is so different than yours with OpenOffice and StarOffice.

    Surely you are kidding when you say that by accounting for the extra time it has taken you to get around in OpenOffice and StarOffice makes them more expensive than MS Office.

    To anyone else reading this download OpenOffice 2.0.3 or StarOffice 8 to compare with MS Office.

    I am sure you will find OpenOffice and StarOffice much more reasonable in StarOffice and far more reasonable in OpenOffice than the expensive MS Office.

    The use of OpenOffice and StarOffice saves good dollars and makes sense.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:38pm

    Open Source = Money Saved = Confused Users = Time

    walt foster >> "The use of OpenOffice and StarOffice saves good dollars and makes sense."

    Switching to open source usually means lots of users trying to make "sense" of why they can't do the same things the same way that they could with MS Office. The saved "good dollars" will be sucked up in the hour or two that the average office worker will need, to figure out how to convert those Office docs that everyone else outside of the company, that they do business with, keeps wanting to send them.

    Nice try though, at a proven ineffective argument.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      anonymous, 3 Oct 2006 @ 4:46am

      Re: Open Source = Money Saved = Confused Users = T

      And you began to save big money at the next upgade.

      office is unit cost*∞ number of upgrades
      open office n hours*cost per hour.

      Nice try though, at a proven ineffective argument ;P

      And remember to send in openDocument all the reply that you can get out with.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Khaliq Musa Hadji, 10 Oct 2007 @ 10:51am

    fs: Apple Iphone 4GB.....$250, Sony Ericsson P1...

    KHALIQ PHONES INC.
    We are specialised in all brand new mobile phones like Samsung , Nokia , Qtek , Imate , Palm Treo , Sony Ericsson , Sidekick , Nextel and many more, They are cheap and unlocked with 12 month international warranty.We sell them in Bulk and in Retails ,We shipped inconjunction with fedEx Express, they shipped within 48hrs to your door step. It is a Buy two and get one for free.

    if interested contact : khaliq900@inmail24.com

    Apple Iphone 4GB.....$250USD
    Apple Iphone 8GB.....$350USD

    PRICELIST FOR NOKIA PHONES IN STOCK :
    Nokia 6125 Bluetooth Quadband Unlocked GSM Phone....$150
    Nokia 6136 Bluetooth Quadband Unlocked GSM Phone....$160
    Nokia 6265i Unlocked GSM Cell Phone.....$140
    Nokia 6282 Unlocked GSM Smartphone......$170
    Nokia 8800 GSM Unlocked GSM 900/1800/1900 World Phone.....$175
    Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Support.....$165
    Nokia 8801 GSM Unlocked GSM 850/1800/1900.....$180
    Nokia E51 QuadBand Unlocked GSM Phone......$160
    Nokia E61 Smartphone Unlocked GSM Phone......$200
    Nokia E70 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$150
    Nokia N70 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$155
    Nokia N71 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$165
    Nokia N72 Unlocked GSM Phone Black....$175
    Nokia N81 8GB Quadband Unlocked GSM Smartphone Black.....$200
    Nokia 7900 Prism Unlocked GSM....$190
    Nokia N91 GSM Unlocked Phone.....$200
    Nokia N92 Unlocked GSM Smartphone....$220
    Nokia N93 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$220
    Nokia N93i Unlocked GSM Phone...$270
    Nokia N95 8GB Unlocked GSM Phone.....$300
    Nokia N75 Unlocked GSM Phones....$350
    Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition ..$230

    PRICELIST FOR IMATE PHONES IN STOCK :
    I-Mate JAM 128MB Unlocked GSM Phone....$190
    I-Mate JAM GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Phone....$180
    I-Mate JAMin GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Quadband Phone....$200
    I-Mate JASJAR Quadband GSM Unlocked PDA Smartphone.....$300
    I-Mate K-Jam Quad Band Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$210
    I-Mate Smartflip Unlocked Quadband Smartphone.....$220
    I-Mate SP5 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$130
    I-Mate SP5m Unlocked GSM Smartphone....$120

    PRICELIST FOR MOTOROLA PHONES IN STOCK :
    Motorola Mpx 300...........USD$300
    Motorola A1200 Unlocked Quadband Phone Black.....$170
    Motorola A910 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$130
    Motorola E1070 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$135
    Motorola L2 Candybar RAZR Unlocked GSM Phone....$110
    Motorola Q Unlocked GSM Phone.....$230
    Motorola Rokr E2 Unlocked GSM Triband Phone w/iTunes....$190
    Motorola V1050 Quad Band Unlocked GSM Phone.....$145
    Motorola V195 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$135
    Motorola V3 (Gold) Edition Unlocked GSM Phone....$130
    Motorola V3c RAZR for Verizon.....$135
    Motorola V3i Dolce & Gabbana Unlocked Quadband GSM Phone.....$165
    MOTOROLA V3x (PINK) Unlocked GSM Phone w/128 MB Card.....$140
    Motorola W220 GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$180
    Motorola Razr Maxx V6 Unlocked Cell Phone.....$220

    PRICELIST FOR SAMSUNG PHONES :
    Samsung P920 Unlocked GSM Cell Phone......$245
    Samsung I830 Smartphone Unlocked GSM Cell Phone....$220
    Samsung Serene SGH-E910 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$300
    Samsung S401i Unlocked Triband GSM Cell Phone....$180
    Samsung D870 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$200
    Samsung Z710 Unlocked GSM Mobile Cell Phone....$230
    Samsung p900 unlocked GSM Cell phone......$255
    Samsung p860 unlocked GSM Cell phone......$235

    AK Phones:
    AK Mobile AK-Mini....$160
    AK Mobile AK-S1....$170
    AK Mobile AK900.....$220
    AK Mobile DV2...$230

    O2 XdPhones
    O2 Xda Atom.............USD$300
    O2 Xda Atom Exec...USD$310
    O2 Xda Stealth..........USD$320

    GIGABYTE Phones:
    GIGABYTE G-Smart i350...USD$350
    GIGABYTE Doraemon....USD$300
    GIGABYTE g-Cam.......USD$180
    GIGABYTE Keroro......USD$210
    GIGABYTE Snoopy......USD$215

    Linx Phones:
    Linx M1168......USD$170
    Linx M2688........USD$175

    PRICELIST FOR SONY ERICSSON PHONES :
    Sony Ericsson K310 Unlocked GSM Phone....$125
    Sony Ericsson K510 Unlocked GSM PhonE....$135
    Sony Ericsson K610 Unlocked GSM Phone....$145
    Sony Ericsson K790 Unlocked GSM Phone....$180
    Sony Ericsson K800 Unlocked GSM Phone....$170
    Sony Ericsson M600 Unlocked GSM Phone....$155
    Sony Ericsson P990i GSM Unlocked.........$330
    Sony Ericsson W700i Unlocked GSM Phone...$130
    Sony Ericsson W810 MP3 Quadband GSM Unlocked Phone....$135
    Sony Ericsson W850 GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$220
    Sony Ericsson W900i Unlocked GSM Phone.....$230
    Sony Ericsson W950 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$240
    Sony Ericsson Z710 Quadband GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$240
    Sony Ericsson p910i unlocked GSM phone.....$165
    Sony Ericsson P1 unlocked GSM phone.........$250

    PRICELIST FOR PALM TREO PHONES :
    Handsping Treo 650 GSM Quadband Unlocked Smartphone PDA....$120
    Handsping Treo 700w GSM unlocked phone .....$140

    PRICELIST FOR SIDEKICKS:
    Sidekick ID......$140
    Sidekick 3......$140

    PRICELIST FOR NEXTEL
    Nextel i930..$140
    Nextel i830...$120

    PRICELIST FOR QTEK PHONES :
    Qtek 8100 Tri-Band Camera Music Unlocked GSM Phone White.....$110
    QTEK 8300 GSM MOBILE SMARTPHONE.....$120
    Qtek 8310 Unlocked Quadband GSM Phone....$130
    Qtek 8500 Unlocked SmartPhone.....$125
    Qtek 8600 Unlocked GSM SmartPhone....$200
    Qtek 9000 3G Pocket PC Unlocked GSM Phone.....$250
    Qtek 9100 Smartphone / Pocket PC Unlocked GSM Phone....$150
    Qtek 9600 Unlocked GSM SmartPhone.....$250
    Qtek G100 GPS PPC and Pharos Ostia GPS Software(US Maps)....$155
    QTEK S200 GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Quadband Phone.....$165

    Apple MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz 15.4" Display Macintosh Notebook..$550
    Apple MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2 GHz ( Dual-Core ) 15.4" Display....$560
    Apple PowerBook G4 Motorola PowerPC G4 1 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook..$350
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.33 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook..$400
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook...$530
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz 15.2" Display Macintosh Notebook...$500
    Apple Pro 15 Intel Core Duo 2.16GHz 15.4" Display Macintosh Notebook...$600
    Apple Pro Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz Macintosh Notebook.....$640

    If interested contact : khaliq900@inmail24.com

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.