Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it would be tossing yet another product into its growing bin of underperforming software. Like Encarta, Flight Simulator, and Windows Live OneCare before it, Microsoft Money has been scrapped. And just as Wikipedia defeated Microsoft’s Encarta reference software, Money could not survive against Intuit’s financial software package, Quicken. On the Money website, the company states, “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.”
In August 2008, Microsoft ended updates to Money and pulled the software from retail shelves. By October of that year, the company began scaling back on the development on at least 13 products, which can be found here.
Microsoft Money will be available for purchase until June 30, 2009. Online services will be available until January 31, 2011. Microsoft assures the product will continue to work after that point, but users will no longer have access to automated data feeds from banks, credit card companies, and other financial service providers.
For those who currently own, or plan to purchase the software before the end of June, be sure to activate the program before January 31, 2011. And, for users who are concerned about exporting information from Money to another financial management application (Quicken, anyone?), Microsoft provides a support document on its corporate website, available here: Exporting Account Information.
