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ms office for iPad?
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Unfortunately, it ain't like horseshoes...Close don't count. The various MS Office emulators, as well as Pages, do a fairly good job dealing with simple documents but one reason people use MS Office apps is the highly configurable features they offer. (Sometimes overly configurable but that's another discussion.)
The bottom line is that if you're working with complex spreadsheets (and to a lesser extent with highly formatted Word documents) nothing other than MS Office will suffice.
In general I've found Documents To Go to be the best of the bunch but I'd never trust it for mission critical complex documents.
Oddly, I prefer Pages to Documents to Go. More features, and preserves layouts more.
As for 'nothing beats Office'; yea, I agree; I would love Microsoft to bring something worthwhile to iOS. But I'm not holding my breath.
Although it would be nice, who's to say a ms office app on iOS is going to be foolproof or even better than the alternatives. Look how quirky ms office was on pocket PC and windows mobile. I never got one to one formatting conversion when I used to have those platforms.
I agree it would be nice to have some sort of Office on the iPad. It will be released the day before Apple adds Flash support to its iOS devices.
I'd really like to see a Microsoft Office Suite released for the iphone and especially for the iPad. I think it would be Top App for a long time! I'm sure there would be a price for it but if it wasn't outrageous i'd pay.
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after you factor in the cost of development, updates, and apple's 30 percent tax, i guess the apps would be pricey. in addition, microsoft would be hurting its own brand, windows 8. i wouldn't hold your breath.
besides, word is not one of my favorite programs. i'd like to see us move beyond it someday.
after you factor in the cost of development, updates, and apple's 30 percent tax, i guess the apps would be pricey. in addition, microsoft would be hurting its own brand, windows 8. i wouldn't hold your breath.
besides, word is not one of my favorite programs. i'd like to see us move beyond it someday.
Office is way too expensive to begin with. I shudder to think how much it would cost with Apple's 30% figured in there
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yep. it doesn't make much sense for them to make it or for us to buy it. if a relatively robust product did appear, people would flock to the ipad and microsoft would be done.
i think the question we ought to be asking is why pages and keynote are so limited. what does apple get out of keeping the ipad as a watered down work platform? after all, with footnotes in pages and a few other options apple could dominate the word processing market. they must have a reason for holding back.
yep. it doesn't make much sense for them to make it or for us to buy it. if a relatively robust product did appear, people would flock to the ipad and microsoft would be done.
i think the question we ought to be asking is why pages and keynote are so limited. what does apple get out of keeping the ipad as a watered down work platform? after all, with footnotes in pages and a few other options apple could dominate the word processing market. they must have a reason for holding back.
Microsoft has and will continue to sell Office on the Mac. If protecting Windows 8 is a priority, I'd like to hear the justification in a bit more detail: why encourage Office on the Mac but not sell Office on the iPad?
Also, I do not entirely understand your phrase "30 percent tax". While it is true that the App Store would be the only channel for software sales, all retail sales of software by Apple (or anyone else) has always had a markup. For MS Office on the Mac, Microsoft sells the software to Apple at a wholesale price and Apple sells it at a retail price. There has always been a "tax" on software, but nobody has seemed tremendously upset about it until now. In this regard, the big difference with the app store is that the markup is transparent.
I understand that Microsoft was able to collect all the revenue from Office for Mac software that it sold directly. Was that a significant percentage of retail sales.
Microsoft may be reluctant to port MS Office to the iPad for exactly the same reason that small developers have been reluctant to port their word-processing applications: the lack of an RTF API on iOS.
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office for the mac is software for a platform in a market microsoft dominates. it seems to me that making it available probably does no damage to market share. i don't know about the costs involved, but i bought my copy from microsoft, so i doubt apple got anything. any app on the ipad is funneled through the app store. every sale therefore enriches apple 30%.
in the case of tablets, we all agree that the ipad is rather weak in productivity apps, and i think giving apple a powerful app like office at the same time you are trying to break into the market with windows 8 is a bad idea.
maybe i am wrong. but, if so, why do you think they haven't done it yet?
office for the mac is software for a platform in a market microsoft dominates. it seems to me that making it available probably does no damage to market share. i don't know about the costs involved, but i bought my copy from microsoft, so i doubt apple got anything. any app on the ipad is funneled through the app store. every sale therefore enriches apple 30%.
in the case of tablets, we all agree that the ipad is rather weak in productivity apps, and i think giving apple a powerful app like office at the same time you are trying to break into the market with windows 8 is a bad idea.
maybe i am wrong. but, if so, why do you think they haven't done it yet?
I haven't heard any news, but I'm not a huge fan of office. I'm more of a iWork guy. So I'm not really complaining about the lack of office on iOS.
With the 30% apple gets from each app, the more Ms Office app microsoft would sells, the more apple would profit from it.
I think it can be called Conflict of Intrest
I'm completely pulling this out of my rear, but what do you think about MS producing a "Microsoft Office Lite" that would support their own formats perfectly, but leave out some of the less used features?
Not Happening
And I agree with the comments about Pages, it's okay for basic stuff, but it falls down flat in heavily formatted documents like contracts etc.
I had to bite the bullet and by a copy of Office for my iMac.....we may hate Ms, but Office rules the roost
And I agree with the comments about Pages, it's okay for basic stuff, but it falls down flat in heavily formatted documents like contracts etc.
I had to bite the bullet and by a copy of Office for my iMac.....we may hate Ms, but Office rules the roost
I understand why Microsoft wouldn't release Office for iPad. I don't think that it would be possible for them to win, if they put everything that people want into the app, it would be to heavy and sluggish on the iPad, and the UI would be awful. If they made it light enough for the iPad and streamlined it so that it looked elegant, many of the weaknesses of the iWork apps would be there. I'm not sure that it would be possible for them to avoid a kicking if they did release it.
With the 30% apple gets from each app, the more Ms Office app microsoft would sells, the more apple would profit from it.
I think it can be called Conflict of Intrest
I've never quite understood comments like this. All retailers of MS Office for the Mac charge a markup on the wholesale price of Microsoft's product when they sell it, and Apple has always been the largest retailer of the product. Nobody talked about a "Conflict of Interest" for that product.
I expect that Msoft are working on a Touch-friendly version for Windows 8. If they are smart they will have it as an 8 exclusive for a bit to capture sales.