| Corel joins Lenovo to
woo consumers, very small businesses
1 March, 2006
By Liam Lahey
In a continuing effort to woo consumers and very small businesses
(VSBs) to adopt its WordPerfect Office suite, Corel Corp.
said the software company's latest OEM deal with the world's
third largest PC maker Lenovo will help it to chip away at
a slice of Microsoft's dominance on the desktop.
To date, Corel officials said it has succeeded in doing exactly
that, albeit gradually.
According to Richard Carrier, general manager of office productivity
for Ottawa-based Corel, the Lenovo deal marks the third of
three main objectives Corel had for "bringing the WordPerfect
product back into the marketplace".
He said Corel is aiming to provide consumers and VSBs (as
well as customers in the government, legal, and education
market segments) with a choice of value for their office productivity
needs.
"We've made inroads in the consumer and SMB markets
and we've found through our surveys that 50 per cent of VSBs
and consumers want a choice, they don't want a solution imposed
upon them when they purchase a new PC. They don't want to
pay an additional $300 or $400 for an office suite,"
he said. "Lenovo approached us about the Corel Small
Business Center for their Lenovo 3000 line of notebooks for
SMBs."
By bundling the Corel Small Business Center applications
(includes WordPerfect Office, CorelDRAW, Corel Paint Shop
Pro X and Corel Photo Album 6 Starter Edition) on the Lenovo
3000 line of laptops, Carrier said the deal follows a similar
OEM deal Corel holds with Dell the last two to three years.
"Every consumer machine shipped by Dell in the last
three years has had WordPerfect on it and we've held surveys
to determine there's a high level of usage and satisfaction
coming from those customers," he said. "Microsoft
is still dominant in the market . . . but if you look at today's
data, Microsoft's share has eroded slightly and we've taken
that share."
The Lenovo 3000 N and V Series notebooks will include the
Google Toolbar, Google Desktop and Picasa software, Roxio
Digital Media, Norton Internet Security, Corel's Small Buisness
Center applications, and chips from Intel and Advanced Micro
Devices.
The Lenovo 3000 N Series wide-screen notebooks (14.1-inch
and 15.4-inch displays) begin shipping in March and the Lenovo
3000 V Series laptops, with 12-inch displays, in the 2Q06
(second quarter of 2006), officials said.
"Here's a high quality alternative (to Microsoft) by
a Tier 1 OEM and a top software vendor," he added. "This
certainly should cause people to take a look."
Otherwise, Corel's WordPerfect Office Suite and its other
applications can be purchased as standalone software products
via the channel and retailers.
Another area where Corel has been successfully asserting
itself is in the retail segment. Carrier cited Corel's current
deal with The Source in Canada whereby he said Corel's products
are offered to consumers that emulate an OEM type of deal.
"Small businesses have unique needs and requirements
which are often vastly different and more personal than their
larger counterparts," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst
for the San Jose, Calif.-based Enderle Group. "Lenovo
and Corel are positioning this targeted offering primarily
at companies with under 100 users looking for a high value,
feature rich solution. Small businesses in North America,
Latin America and Asia-Pacific will undoubtedly appreciate
both the attention and the choice."
Officials said customers could also upgrade from within the
Corel Small Business Center for WordPerfect ($94), CorelDRAW
Graphics Suite ($237), Paint Shop Pro X ($94), and Corel PhotoAlbum
($34).
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