Sun Tests StarOffice Subscription

Sun Microsystems will begin offering its StarOffice suite of office productivity applications on a one-year subscription for Japanese customers, starting in February.

Limited-Time License

One-year licensed versions of the application suite will be offered by local distributor Sourcenext for $18.60 through Internet download, retail stores, and also convenience stores, says Yoshiyuki Tanaka, a spokesperson for Sun's Japan unit. It's the first time such a pricing scheme has been offered for the software in any market, according to Sun.

When the one-year subscription license expires, users of the software will have the option to either renew the license or discontinue paying. If the customer doesn't pay to renew the license, the software will lock up and remain unusable until a new license has been purchased, Tanaka says.

Sun will continue to market the conventional version of the StarOffice software. The license for the standard version does not expire, but costs $92, Tanaka says. Sun markets StarOffice as StarSuite 7 in Japan and other East Asian markets. It also goes by OpenOffice.org, the open-source suite from which it is derived.

Other Efforts

Sun did not provide market share figures for the software, although the company says Sourcenext sold 30,000 copies of the suite in 2003. The market leader in Japan, as in the U.S., is Microsoft Office, which comes preinstalled on many PCs. Similarly, Sun has cut bundling deals with a few vendors that preload StarOffice on systems as a budget alternative to Microsoft Office.

Sun also supports Linux versions of the suite. StarOffice is part of Sun's Mad Hatter project, an alternative to Windows that will run on several operating systems.