Long time followers of the ODF-OOXML story will recall that there is a third editable, XML-based document format in the race to create the documentary record of history. That contender is called UOF - for Uniform Office Format, and it has been under development in China since 2002, although I first learned of, and wrote about, it back in November of 2006. Last summer, UOF was adopted as a Chinese National Standard, and last Friday the first complete office suite based upon UOF was released. It's called Evermore Integrated Office 2009 (EIOffice 2009 for short), and here's the story.


According to an English language article posted at the Interfax-China site today, EIOffice 2009 was developed by Chinese software vendor Evermore Software Co. Ltd. And while that name may not ring a bell outside of China, apparently it carries weight in Chinese government procurement circles. According to someone identified in the article as "an Evermore PR manager, who wished to remain anonymous," Evermore products "have occupied the largest proportion of government purchases of office software in recent years."

On the other hand, the same source stated that EIOffice 2009 "has more features than Microsoft Office," which hardly sounds likely, given that Office has more features than most ordinary users are ever likely to stumble on (let alone use) in one lifetime. That said, the new suite claims to be ahead of Office 2007 in one more specific respect. According to Interfax, EIOffice 2009 is compatible with ODF as well as OOXML files. (Details on how difficult that might have been to achieve can be found here).

While Evermore may not cost Microsoft many sales in the West, it could prove to be a formidable opponent in what I expect will soon be the largest market for software in the world - China, with its 1.3 billion people. China is determined to promote its own software industry, and Evermore also will have a distinct price advantage, at least relative to Microsoft's standard list prices. The top edition of EIOffice 2009 will sell for RMB 1,198 ($174.92), as compared to the RMB 4,902 ($717.83) price in China for Microsoft's professional Office 2007 edition. Ironically, the crackdown on piracy in China that western governments and software vendors have long been calling for is now taking increasing effect - just in time to make such price differentials significant.

Small wonder that the same spokesperson says that Evermore is "confident that our EIOffice 2009 will be well received by users in the government and education sectors." That mention of educational sectors is particularly interesting, given that Microsoft has already given so much ground in China that it recently announced that it would sell copies to Chinese students of both Windows and the student edition of Office together for the incredibly low price of $3.00. Perhaps Evermore is willing to undercut even that almost non-existent price to land educational customers.

How big a threat will EIOffice 2009 be to Office? That's an interesting question. Interfax tapped a non-Evermore source for an opinion on that subject as well.

Professor Ni Guangnan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and proponent of open source software, told Interfax that with China's massive customer base for office software, UOF will beat OOXML to be a global standard for Chinese language documents if the government gives enough support.

Ni said that the development of UOF will provide Chinese users with more choice and encourage domestic software developers to break Microsoft's leading position in China.

And there could be other factors to take into account as well. The Chinese government has been playing a skillful game of cat and mouse with Microsoft since last year. And it's clearly no coincidence that on July 11, Evermore Vice President Cao Shen called for Microsoft to be the first target for the China's new anti-monopoly law, which will take effect in ten days' time. Whether Shen is speaking to, or for, the government, of course, remains to be seen.

Still, I have noted several recent standards-related articles at Xinhau, the official Chinese news service, that have been unusually hostile not only towards Microsoft, but other western vendors as well, such as Nokia (this time with respect to 3G wireless standards - and perhaps good news for Google and Apple). And then there is the WiFi - WAPI face off, which refuses to die. WAPI installations, a well as China's home-grown TD-CDMA 3G wireless standard will both be given high profile exposure during the Olympic games

All in all, it appears that athletics will not provide the only contest in Beijing in August. Another struggle of Olympian proportions - with far more gold to be won - is about to begin there as well. And while the government may not be able to influence what happens on the playing fields, it is determined not to come home empty handed when it comes to standards.

Original link: http://www.consortiuminfo.org/st...