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FRANKFURT/SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research)
has lost a preliminary vote to have its Office Open XML document format
approved as an international standard, denting the company's hopes of
wider adoption of the standard by public-sector organizations.
The result of the International Organisation for Standardisation
(ISO) ballot, announced on Tuesday, was hailed as a victory for open
standards by supporters of the rival Open Document Format, who argued
the Microsoft format was not open, but a ploy to lock in users.
Microsoft failed to capture a two-thirds majority in the vote to
approve the file format as a global standard, but the group will meet
in February to hammer out a consensus, allowing the world's largest
software maker more time to grab votes.
Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) is the default file-saving
format in Microsoft Office 2007, the latest version of its dominant
productivity software. The Open Document Format (ODF) has already
garnered international standard status from the ISO.
"We believe that the final tally in early 2008 will result in the
ratification of Open XML as an ISO standard," said Tom Robertson,
general manager of interoperability and standards at Microsoft.
Microsoft argues that its format has higher specifications and is
more useful than ODF, while opponents say Open XML's 6,000 pages of
code compared with ODF's 860 pages make it complicated and
untranslatable into other formats.
Free and rival productivity software suite OpenOffice.org uses ODF,
an open standard supported by International Business Machines Corp.
(IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA.O: Quote, Profile, Research)
The standardization of Open XML would allow other companies to build
products using the file format and simplify file exchange between
different software suites.
The ISO said in a statement on Tuesday that 53 percent of the votes
cast by national standards bodies were in favor of Microsoft, missing
the necessary two-thirds majority.
Twenty-six percent of national votes cast were against approving
Open XML in the five-month ballot process, in which 104 national member
bodies were entitled to vote.
The ODF Alliance said in a statement that the large number of "no"
votes "demonstrates the depth of concern around the world over OOXML's
interoperability and openness."
"Microsoft has every right to seek the ISO label for OOXML, but, as
the ballot results show, it has a long way to go before it earns it and
can be considered a truly open, interoperable document format," it said.
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