OpenOffice Download Boom
Frank Mau observes a rapid increase in downloads of OpenOffice.org. He writes, “Looking back on our last download numbers we can see them increasing version by version. We grew over 20% from Version 2.3.1 to 2.4.0. Now the 2.4.1 started and it looks good to beat our own record.”
He credits the quality of the software, and the new, more easily navigated website as major reasons for this increase.
“OpenOffice.org is a good product, for free and localized in many languages. We have extensions to extend office functionality if needed…
“Another factor is the one-download-click that enables the user to get the download starting with one-click from the homepage or the download main-page. In numbers, before we started with the one-click and the redesign of the pages 10% of visitors started a download of OpenOffice.org after visiting the homepage. After the introduction of the one-click and the other web-changes 20%.”
I’d add that OpenOffice is approaching a tipping point. More and more users are telling their friends, requesting it at work, or even standardizing on OOo across their entire company. This creates significant knock-on effects and substantial longterm growth.
With the upcoming release of version 3.0 (beta available now for testing) that includes a native version for Mac OS X, I expect these numbers to reach yet another plateau.