Microsoft to discontinue MS Money
Microsoft plans to stop selling Microsoft Money, its venerable, but not market-leading personal finance program, CNET News has learned.
The software maker has been notifying financial institutions and plans to announce the move to customers over the next 24 hours via a posting on its Web site and a notification in the software. Although Microsoft will stop selling the product at the end of June, it plans to support it through January 2011.
Microsoft plans to stop selling Microsoft Money at the end of the month, although for the moment it continues to pitch the product on its Web site.
(Credit: CNET)After that point, people can continue to use the product, but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers.
Last year, Microsoft stopped selling Money at retail stores, offering it only by Internet download. The company also said it would stop doing annual updates, but said at the time it planned to continue offering the product.
Microsoft's Adam Sohn said the company now plans to halt sales of the product at the end of the month. A variety of factors led the company to change course.
"It's a mix of what's going on in the market, what makes sense for long-term for us and a little bit on consumer behavior," said Sohn, a director in Microsoft's Online Business Services unit.
The discontinuation of Money is one of the more high-profile product cuts made in the wake of the company's cost-cutting efforts, which began in January. Microsoft said in March it was largely discontinuing its Encarta encyclopedia and has also scrapped its Windows OneCare antivirus product.
As of Wednesday, Microsoft had made no mention of its plans on the Web site. Rather it was offering to sell Money for $59 and featured a link for financial institutions to get more involved in the product.
Sohn said that the company plans to continue selling Money through the end of the month and hasn't made a plan to offer refunds to recent buyers of the product. Those who have recently bought the product, he said, still have a good while to get the value from it. (Microsoft will support Money slightly longer for those who have recently bought the product, per its licensing terms).
Plus, he said, some people will continue to use it even after the automatic services stop. At that point, consumers will have to manually download information from their banks and other service providers. "After Jan 31, 2011, the product will work," he said. "It just wont have the rich-services back end."
Although Microsoft will support current partners pushing data to Money users, it won't be adding any new institutions. It will, however, let current partners re-brand themselves.
The software maker also plans to continue its MSN Money Web site, although Sohn said the company opted not to try to recreate the full Money program on the Web.
Competing with Intuit and Mint
Microsoft has long been chasing Intuit's Quicken. Microsoft even tried to buy Intuit in the mid-1990s, but the Justice Department blocked the move.
In subsequent years, Microsoft has continued the product but also has continued to trail Quicken's sales. More recently, Money has also faced a new wave of Internet-based competitors, such as Mint.com and Intuit's free Web-based Quicken Online program.
The company has been trying for years to grapple with massive changes in the consumer packaged software market as much of that business moves online.
Although its core Office and Windows products remain strong sellers at retail, the company has opted to scale back in other areas, particularly in the purely consumer arena.
In addition to canning Encarta, Microsoft also stopped selling its Digital Image Suite product after the release of Windows Vista.
Update, 2:40 p.m.: Microsoft has now posted a notice on its Web site.
"With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed," Microsoft said. "We would like to thank the many dedicated users who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Money over the years, as well as our partner financial institutions who helped pioneer a digital vision of financial management."
Meanwhile, I also spoke with a spokesman for Intuit, who said that the company is looking at ways to make it easier for Microsoft Money users to bring their data over to that product.
"We look it as an opportunity to show Microsoft Money customers what they have been missing... over the years," Intuit spokesman Scott Gulbransen said.
Although Intuit has recently been bulking up its free online product, Gulbransen said that the company is committed to also offering PC-based software. "We are committed to those who would like to stay with a desktop software solution," he said.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
OSX' Text Edit can natively read and write .doc files these days, and that comes standard with the OS... (curiously enough, OSX can also read PDF files with the native Preview app, while you still have to go download a bloated-as-hell Acrobat Reader or hunt down a 3rd-party PDF reading app just to read a PDF file in Windows...)
And yea although people love to bash Works, the MS Works that comes with Vista can natively edit/save .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Basically, the new Works is WAY better than you think it is (but people never give it enough of a chance to discover that they dont need to spend that extra $150 to get the prettier interface that they didn't even want in the first place...ok now im just ranting)
@BK216: you're saying it can edit/save Excel files? I've love to see the documentation that says anything near that...
Yes it can save Excel files. That includes Excel 2007 and the earlier versions. It can also open them. You would use Microsoft Works Spreadsheet to do this (It's also part of the package).
As has been brought up several times before, the best way to learn about a product is to simply try it. Then you'll be speaking from the point of experience instead of speculation and rumor.
MS doesn't have the option of including MS Word into Windows -- the DOJ will be on their case before you can say "Jack Robinson". They've seen all this happen before:
1) Google complained to the DOJ when MS included desktop search into Vista (MS made changes to make the engine pluggable).
2) Google complained to the DOJ when MS included a search bar in IE (MS had to add a customization dialogue that pops up when you run IE the first time).
3) The AV vendors complained to the DOJ when MS tried to turn on Kernel Patch Protection in Vista by default. MS had to relent and only turn it on in 64-bit Vista and leave it off in 32-bit Vista. Patch protection basically required that all modules loaded into the kernel were signed - that's all. So it was good for security. But the AV guys didn't like it because it messed with the rootkit-like techniques they used on install (which they simply should not have been using, and which they could work around).
Regarding OS-X's text edit app -- you can achieve the same thing with write.exe in windows (word pad). Of course, it's far from fully featured, and MS can't add new features there for the same reasons above.
MS would surely include a native PDF reader if it wasn't for Adobe dragging them in front of the US DOJ. Adobe sued MS when they added print-to-pdf capabilities into word. MS relented and made the feature a free download -- and Adobe withdrew the case. If Adobe sued for that, imagine the fit they'll throw for any PDF capabilities being included into windows.
You're right about Acrobat Reader being bloated. Give Foxit viewer a try (do a search and you'll find it pretty easily). It's *extremely* full-featured., and in some cases even has features that are missing from Acrobat Reader. What's more - Acrobat Reader has had a lot of security bullitens issued recently. Several security vendors (I think including Kaspersky who I trust) have recommended using Foxit for security reasons. I currently use Foxit and it's very fast compared to acrobat reader.
WordPad doesn't not include advanced typographical tools, does it? TextEdit does. "More akin", yes, "equal to", no.
FYI, MS Works has never been part of Windows either. A lot of computer vendors include it with their consumer machines, but since I have read that it only costs them $2/machine it doesn't hurt their profit margins much to include it for the handful of people who just want a really basic stripped down version of Office. While a lot of heavy Office users consider Works a joke there are some home users where Works is fine. For those who need a little more features you could go download OpenOffice.org for gratis.
You must not get laid much do you?
Complaining about the type of computer you have to use you must be good with the ladies eh.
"I agree. Don't buy things you don't like."
Like nobody has to buy into your argument or comments? :)
If you feel so strong about hating Windows so much, then simply quit your job and get another one. Unless you are willing to do that, then you're really not that convincing beyond just whining. Unfortunately *my* job is supporting people like you.
"Enjoy Windows guys! You can have it." For someone so intent on ignoring it, you can't leave it alone.
The only rebuttals I've seen from people here are childish non sequiturs such as "you're getting old", "change professions if you don't like Windows" and "you don't have a girlfriend?". I think that says a lot.
Regarding Microsoft Money, I think they made a smart decision ending it. That's not to say Quicken is any better mind, some of Intuit's shenanigans are legendary.
(It's a sorry state of affairs that I would need to include this to prevent flamers, but for the interests of disclosure I am a Mac and FreeBSD user.)
Oh well just add it to the list of under preforming software they are killing off.
Good to see they are cutting losing software and slimming down somewhere else besides people even tho they have done a lot of that.
@sanenazok We do stop supporting (sunset) products after three development years...not two. And we won't be changing that. I understand your frustration but it's not possible for us to support products that far back.
Thanks for the comments.
@PRGully
It's not your support I neeeded. Downloading data from my bank doesn't take support. Just a willing bank and myself to downlaod it. Quicken shoudln't even be involved once the data format was set way back.
Really disappointed, this severely messes up how I keep track of things, and was one of the few MS products I pay for.
Hopefully, they will do one last software patch to remove all the links and hooks to on-line syncing so it can be used stand-alone without inadvertant download starts and the resultant errors.
I almost worry when Apple and Microsoft news comes onto CNET because of all the mudslinging, from both sides. It's juvenile.
Apple has quite a bit of competition from Linux and all the different BSD versions. I think Apples best bet is to ignore Microsoft and focus on the true competition. Why give Microsoft free advertising?
Anyway, great idea Renegade. I'm hoping others will support this idea and communicate it loudly to Microsoft.
It's free and most importantly - very easy to use and navigate unlike Quicken. Granted Quicken has more features but I bet only 10% of Quicken users (or maybe even less than that) ever use all those features.
There's so much room to grow in online personal finance tools ... looking forward to Quicken and Mint duking it out.
Microsoft, you should do this little thing called, advertising, so that people know you even have MS Money and know what it offers. And as said earlier, why didn't MS have a mobile version for the current mobile devices. MS just doesn't seem to get themselves sometimes. They don't leverage themselves at all.
Alex
Funny that. When they did have it, no one used it because it was ahead of its time. Smartphones were ungodly expensive and few in number. Once they stop supporting it, everyone wants it.
I also think Adobe Creative Suite (Adobe favors the Mac platform in case you didn't know), should require a "license to drive" in the form of at least a 4 year degree in design arts. Hmmm maybe not. I might lose that extra income I get from taking screwed up artwork done by amateurs and fixing it!
Nope, it was PageMaker. And not even the current generation, but PageMaker 6.5. That took some time to track down, but it's been worth it. It is the last version that came out before Adobe decided to try to 'improve' it by adding o many features and redesigns as to make it unusuable. P65 was and is the defacto standard.
Now they want Adobe Acrobat files, but prefer if you build them in PageMaker first before conversion. Still, it's better than what else is available.
- by dbloyd June 10, 2009 1:05 PM PDT
- I liked Money better than Quicken.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
-
- by gerrrg June 10, 2009 2:11 PM PDT
- User error.
- Like this
-
- by shycelticwitch June 16, 2009 9:39 AM PDT
- You like MS Publisher because you don't have the professional knowledge or training to use InDesign. But when you use Publisher it must make you THINK you are a professional. Almost EVERY person I contact regarding problems with their Publisher files tells me "I don't know why there are problems, it's a graphic design program and it lets me design my own stuff."
- Like this
-
Showing 1 of 3 pages (127 Comments)Microsoft stopped producing a program called Photo Draw that I liked very much. It was a good balance of easy and professional. I also miss the CD reference titles from the early 90's. They had high production standards of that time compared to other vendors with similar products.
I also like MS Publisher. InDesign makes you do everything and my documents looked like crap in compared to publisher.
LOLOLOL