Corel Corp chose New York’s PC Expo to announce shipping of the latest version of its flagship office suite product, WordPerfect 8.0, amid open challenges to Microsoft Corp. Corel, which claims to have roughly 50% of the office suite market, has taken out an advertisement in the USA Today newspaper listing 100 things WordPerfect 8.0 has and does that Office 97 doesn’t and can’t. Chief Michael Cowpland says that the list was distilled from a full list of 400 features. Corel also boasts that its upgrade cycle is only 12 months, as opposed to the 24 months it takes Redmond to ready the next version of its product. The suite goes for $400, or $180 for an upgrade from a previous version, compared to $500 for Office 97. The product’s success is all but crucial for Corel, which said last week it will take charges of $113m for the current quarter (CI No 3,180) after eking out a profit of only $1m last time.
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