WPS Office

For the user interface of the IBM OS/2 operating system, see Workplace Shell..

WPS Office, formerly known as simply WPS (Word Processing System), is an office suite developed by Kingsoft (China) as an alternative to Microsoft Office aimed at the Chinese market. WPS Office 2002, released in 2002, was considered by many a serious competitor to the dominant Microsoft Office (MS Office) Simplified Chinese edition for its much lower cost and an user interface that perfectly replicates MS Office's. Many local Chinese governments including Beijing and Guangdong licensed thousands of copies of WPS Office immediately after the People's Republic of China (PRC) joined the WTO (World Trade Organization). Shanghai, however still opted for the more expensive MS Office.

The latest version, WPS 2005, was claimed to be "thoroughlly compatible with Microsoft Office". The user interface fully resembles the MS product series, the suite reads and writes the files generated by its rival just like its native documents. With the light size (setup file for personal edition is only 15 MB), and much lower price (the personal edition is free for download, government edition is expected to be around RMB 1200, about $150 USD), a soaring discussion on this product has been on since September 2005 when it was released by Kingsoft.

Early dominance

WPS started as a word processor under DOS. WPS maintained an enormous user base through out the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, high level of piracy in China at that time ensured that enormous user base did not translate into enormous profit.

Losing grounds to MS Office

As MS Office 95, along with Windows 95, was introduced into the Chinese market, the influence and sales of WPS went into steep decline. Faced with stiff foreign competition and high level of domestic piracy, Kingsoft was nearly bankrupt by the end of 1995. Kingsoft chief software architect Qiu Bo Jun, in a heroic attempt to revive the company, injected 4 million Yuan (apprx US$500,000 in 2003) into the company by selling his private mansion, and began the development of WPS 97 for Windows. When WPS 97 was released in 1997, it struggled to compete with MS Office 97. There were many reasons for that:

• MS Office 97 was in widespread use and users were reluctant to switch
• MS Office 97 offers more features than WPS 97
• WPS was still just a word processor with no spreadsheet or presentation application

In May 2001, Kingsoft launched WPS Office, which included a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Again it struggled to compete with the more powerful MS Office 2000.

Revival

In 2002, WPS Office 2002 surfaced as the next version of WPS Office and added to its bundle an email client. In a move hailed by many, WPS Office 2002 cloned MS Office's user interface to the very last detail and as a result dramatically reduced the amount of retraining required to migrate from MS Office. However, critics labeled the strategic move as "the death of software innovation".

When the PRC joined the WTO, the Chinese look to rid their state-owned computers of pirated software. Kingsoft won big contracts and licensed, to many local Chinese governments including Beijing and Guangdong, thousands of copies of WPS Office. Shanghai, however, was unmoved by the low cost of WPS Office and still opted for the more expensive MS Office.

WPS Office 2003

In August 2003, WPS Office 2003 was released to the exciting news that computers used in civil services by the Chinese government will slowly move to running only domestic-made software. In the same month, Microsoft China warned of legal actions against the Shanghai education deparment for illegal use of Microsoft Office products on their computers. Nearly all public schools in Shanghai were affected. The education department decided against purchasing more licenses from Microsoft and struck a deal with Kingsoft to license 45,000--50,000 copies of WPS Office 2003.

WPS Office Storm

The 2004 incarnation of the office suite, WPS Office Storm, was released in late 2004 to limited fanfare. In its increased effort to converge with MS Office, WPS Office Storm claims to offer perfect compatibility with the MS Office document formats. In a bid to differentiate itself from other office suites, Kingsoft collaborated with Intel and IBM to integrate their text-to-text and text-to-speech technology into WPS Office Storm. Its new technical capabilities became the focal point an advertising campaign. A Linux version of WPS Office Storm is also available. Document formats are identical in Linux and Windows.

WPS Office Storm indeed supports 126 languages. But it is not clear why Kingsoft doesn't provide webpages in English.

See also

• List of office suites
• Comparison of office suites

External links

• Official homepage (in simplified Chinese)
• Linux Version Screenshots (in simplified Chinese)
• Features of Advanced Version (in simplified Chinese)