ThinkFree Sees Opportunity From Dissatisfied Microsoft Office Users

The developers of ThinkFree, the Microsoft Office online clone that is reportedly the object of Google's affection if not acquisition dreams, see Microsoft's new Office 2007 as an opportunity and not as a competitive threat.

"We think a lot of Microsoft users will find the new Office 2007 interface very difficult," said Kang Tae-jin, CEO of the Korean firm, in an interview. "A lot of users will get turned off by this. So we'll stick to the old look." Kang said ThinkFree will remain compatible with Microsoft's new version of the office software

Kang was interviewed after he returned to Silicon Valley from Korea, where reports circulated that a Google team was discussing acquisition. Asked to comment on the Google acquisition reports, Kang said he couldn't discuss the issue.

However, he was loquacious when it came to discussing ThinkFree. He said some 220,000 users have registered to use the online product that mimics Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint functions that form the basis of Microsoft's ubiquitous office software.

Kang said the sign-up rate for ThinkFree has picked up in recent days due to the reports from Korea of Google's interest in ThinkFree.Tracing the history of ThinkFree, Kang noted that its origins stemmed from the network computer concept promoted in the late 1990s by Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy and Oracle's Larry Ellison. The product foundered around for a period. Gradually, it has picked up steam in recent months. Kang said Apple Macintosh users have signed up for the product "disproportionately" although the majority of users of the Java-based product are Windows users.

Apple users account for a disproportionately high ration of ThinkFree users because Apple users tend to be more independent, Kang said. While 5% of PC users use Macs; Mac users account for 10% of the ThinkFree user base.

Kang, who is CEO of ThinkFree, said the use of XML by Microsoft in the office software has made it easier to develop ThinkFree. While ThinkFree has OpenDocument format capability, Kang said not many users seem to want that feature.

While the online basic product remains free and will remain so in the future, supported by ads, the firm plans to add to its premium services. ThinkFree has a paid product aimed at small to medium group collaboration efforts. An offline version for $5 or $10 a month is planned for early next year to complement the online product.

"Companies can buy the software and put it on their servers," said Kang, adding that the Los Angeles Library uses ThinkFree to link its 71 branches.The ThinkFree effort is a unit within Korean software conglomerate Haansoft, whose executives recently said they aren't particularly interested in selling out to Google, according to Korean media reports.