PowerPoint faces challenge from collaborative presentation platform

A new collaborative presentation platform is taking direct aim at Microsoft’s PowerPoint application, which has become the de facto standard for meetings around the world.

Prezi, which is supported by TED conferences, uses a non-linear platform that is designed to keep presentations fluid. The user downloads the entire presentation onto their computer and can then zoom in on specific segments as and when they want. Now the company has announced a collaborative tool that lets 10 people work on a single presentation as a cloud service.

“The minute you see it you can tell this is different,” Michael Fauscette, group vice president of Software Solutions at IDC told V3.co.uk.

“It is such a flexible tool and it’s all about linear versus the ability to free-flow information. Moving it into collaboration is a very natural thing, it opens up functions very like mind mapping to generate new material,” he added.

The company offers a free public service with 100MB of storage, private 500MB accounts for $59 (£38) per year or 2GB and offline working capabilities for $159 (£103).

The company already has a million users, chief executive Peter Arvai told V3.co.uk.

“If you have a visual mindset I’ve heard a lot people say Prezi mimics how they think,” he said.

“There’s two types of mental positions: people who think visually in terms of ideas and connections, and people who think sequentially – where x leads to y then to z and so on.”

Uptake is spreading rapidly by sheer word of mouth, he said, helped by the " death by PowerPoint" effect. A special education package is also available.

The application itself is largely written in Flash, with some code extensions. While Arvai would not be drawn on HTML5 plans for the application, he acknowledged the market was heading in that direction.

“Obviously, the iPad is a very popular device and we’ve had a lot of requests from users for a version,” he said.

“We take such requests very seriously.”