微軟將在平板電腦上裝免費Office

SEATTLE — Microsoft is serious about making its most lucrative business, Office, relevant to mobile users. What is less clear is how much money it will be able to make from them.

西雅圖——讓Office這個公司最賺錢的業務對移動用戶構成吸引力，是微軟(Microsoft)十分看重的。至於能從他們身上賺多少錢，就不得而知了。

On Monday, the company announced partnerships with nearly a dozen makers of tablets based on Android, Google’s mobile operating system. The most prominent of those deals is with Samsung, the largest maker of Android devices, which plans to ship Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, on some of its tablets during the first half of this year. Just recently, Microsoft cut a similar deal to load Office onto Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones. Microsoft said Dell would also put Office on its Android tablets. Nine other companies, mostly regional hardware makers in other countries, will do the same.

週一，微軟宣佈將與十幾家基於谷歌(Google)移動操作系統Android的平板電腦製造商合作。這批交易中最引人注目的就是它與最大的Android設備製造商三星(Samsung)之間協議。該公司計劃於今年上半年，在公司的一些平板電腦上裝載Word、Excel、PowerPoint和OneNote等Office軟件。前不久，微軟剛剛達成了一筆相似的交易，要在三星的新款Galaxy S6和S6 Edge手機上裝載Office軟件。微軟稱，戴爾(Dell)也會在其Android平板電腦上裝載Office。另外還有九家公司，其中大多是其他國家的地區性硬件製造商，也會這樣做。

The deals are yet another illustration of how Microsoft has changed its philosophy about mobile. The old Microsoft fought the mobile technology duopoly of Android and Apple’s iOS by withholding its Office applications from them. The new Microsoft is doing everything it can to get Office into the hands of people with those devices.

這些交易也再次說明，微軟關於移動設備的觀念發生了何種轉變。原來的微軟，爲了對抗Android和蘋果(Apple)iOS對移動科技的壟斷，一直不肯在相關設備上安裝Office應用。而新的微軟，卻在盡一切可能，讓使用這些設備的人們能接觸到Office。

“It goes to show we are truly reinventing ourselves,” Peggy Johnson, executive vice president for business development at Microsoft, said in an interview.

微軟商業發展執行副總裁佩吉·約翰遜(Peggy Johnson)在採訪中說，“它會表明我們真的在重塑自己。”

Microsoft’s top priority at the moment is clearly more use, not sales. The company is letting mobile users run Office on their phones and tablets free, in the hopes of eventually luring them to buy premium features available through an Office subscription service. Ms. Johnson said there had been 80 million downloads of Office on iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads.

微軟目前的首要任務無疑是更多的使用量，而非銷售量。微軟正在讓移動設備用戶在他們的手機和平板電腦上免費使用Office，希望最後能誘使這些用戶通過Office訂閱服務，購買相關的高級功能。約翰遜表示，在用於iPhone和iPad的iOS系統上，Office的下載量達8000萬次。

This so-called freemium approach to making money is the standard for countless app start-ups today. It is, however, a bit riskier for a company like Microsoft with a colossal, mature software franchise like Office, one that brings in billions of dollars in revenue a year.

這種通過所謂的免費增值模式來賺錢的方法，是當今無數應用程序初創企業的慣用手段。不過，對於擁有Office這樣大型而成熟的軟件的微軟而言，風險就會大一些。Office每年可以帶來數十億美元的收益。

Microsoft does not seem worried that giving away a functional version of Office for mobile will kill its business. And it certainly does not seem to be slowing the pace of its efforts to make Office a mainstay for Android and iOS users.

微軟似乎並不擔心，爲移動設備提供一個可用的Office版本將對其業務造成致命危險。而且它無疑還會繼續努力，讓Office成爲Android和iOS用戶的首選。

“We’re comfortable with the model as it stands,” Ms. Johnson said.

約翰遜說，“目前來看，我們對這種模式挺滿意。”