Apple and Google Working on More "New Things"

[itsme92]

The majority of Mac and PC users use only a fraction of the features in an Office Suite: it will be fairly easy for open source alternatives to enter and compete with a comprehensive, but reduced feature set that the majority of office users will need.

Yeah, most people don't use a fraction of Microsoft Office's features, but everybody uses a different set of features, so it'll be hard for a 'lite' software alternative to gain much ground. Look at Microsoft Works.

Open Source won't ever take over the office software market because people come home from work and school and want to be able to work on their documents seamlessly, without any hassles.

And, if you ask me, the price for Office for home and student users is quite reasonable at $150. It's not like home users buy Office Professional for $700 or something, all they need are the basics: Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

 

[mac 2005]

Or, to put it another way, my enemy's enemy is my friend.

A very, very interesting observation. Back in the day, Jobs was so afraid of IBM--Big Blue--that he gave away the store, so to speak, to Gates and Microsoft. Does history repeat itself? I hope not.

 

[mac 2005]

i think you're right.

Totally off topic, but you may want to add context to your signature quote. The punchline hinges on people understanding that said tuna sandwich is priced at an airport vs. a store where it would retail for far less.

 

[iancapable]

Or, to put it another way, my enemy's enemy is my friend.

what are you on about?

 

[JMax1]

Apple TV + user created content (i.e. YouTube) could be a good play for Apple to go after the young market.

Apple is all about consuming your media as and when you want... this would play in very nicely... It could be the video equiv. of what apple has going for podcasting.

Just a conjecture.

with the speed of today's fads, I just don't know how much longer you TUbe will be around and as popular as it is today. Something else will come around to take it's place. And probably sooner than later.

 

[belovedmonster]

Open Source won't ever take over the office software market because people come home from work and school and want to be able to work on their documents seamlessly, without any hassles.

But aren't schools and large corporations beginning to adopt Open Office? There seems to be a flaw in your argument here. In 5 years time a large number of schools and work places will use Open Office.

Also, Open Office and Open Source software is all about pushing forward the adoption of open standards for files, so if anything, people who want seamless integration across all computers are more likely to go towards Open Source in the future.

 

[0007776]

does google have a rumor site?

No but you could start one.

 

[Steve.s]

It doesn't really matter for Mac users, since Microsoft already said that Office 2008 for Mac will not include the ribbon interface.

Here are some screens of the new Office 2008 http://www.tuaw.com/photos/office-2008-for-the-mac-screenshots/
Almost thought I was looking at iWork. Personally I don't think it's a good thing that they don't share the exact same ui, means that I need to learn two separate office suites from work and home.

 

[AppleMan101]

well i think it's because apple are about to purchase the moon, and google will photograph it.

they'll call it google moon... and it will look like this. Zoom in all the way, just for 5h!ts and giggles.

 

[Sabon]

Imagine being at your computer, and you update your calender with some new appointments and it syncs automatically to google calender, and then you go and have a meeting and some of those appointments get changed and so you just log into google apps on someone else's computer, because for whatever reason you dont have yours, and it updates the appointments on there..and then when you get back to your computer..iCal prompts you to resync your calender, and all the new changes are there automatically.

OR how about have it automatically send the updates to the calendar in your iPhone (as well as .mac and iCal) but also tell you on the iphone the appointment has been updated. Think iCan and iChat working together or something.

 

[kevinoneill]

I don't like the office ribbon system. It is great for some people, especially inexperienced people, who can now find what they want to do, without searching through menus...BUT, on a small laptop screen, the ribbon takes a LOT of screen real estate...

you can hide it... or "minimize" it rather

 

[mdriftmeyer]

You're absolutely right. The problem is that if people use it at work they'll want to use it at home. The other issue is that of students/children who will use MS office in school and from time to time will have to use the more sophisticated features of the software.

MS office is as pervasive as windows or google or the ipod, it's almost cultural in how far it has penetrated peoples mindsets.

The 'problem' now is that MS has come up with a deceptively simple and highly intuitive UI that powers what is an extremely advanced piece of software. Sound familiar?

iWork will hopefully move in the direction you've outlined and will please 20% of the 5% of people who use macs. The cultural change in this arena will have to take place in the PC/linux world. Which is perhaps where google will step in.

Please elaborate on these "more sophisticated" features that will be needed from time to time.

 

[J Radical]

Please elaborate on these "more sophisticated" features that will be needed from time to time.

Example: decent spreadsheet application with scientific functions. I've talked about this before but people seem to hate MS so much that they won't even entertain the notion that their product is miles better than anything apple have come up with.

 

[Chef Medeski]

get over the whole tablet thing, honestly, it's 90's style and completely washed up already.

pfft.

Anyways with new technologies, Tablet is more relevant than ever. There has been a crescendo in technological advance and innovative software. The whole computer industry has slowed down on innovation. I mean honestly everything new is just a rehashed, new version of something old. Innovation is on the horizon, multi-touch, smaller, lighter systems will allow greater flexibility than ever before. And while right now seen as a niche, or small market. Tablets will soon grow. Mark my words, developing a Tablet now, where they exist but not well is a ripe moment to enter a field that seems dieing but really is merely waiting for a bit better products since people already love the wow factor they just need more reasons to rationally justify a purchase. You give 'em a couple and lets see how quickly those will last on a shelf.

 

[SLiM620]

Maybe I'm missing something here, I understand the Google/.mac subject, I get the Google video/ tv connection, but what would Google have to do with Apple developing a tablet?

A tablet that was part Gps and intergrated google maps and google earth

kinda like iono.... the iPhone+GPS....that would be wayyy cool but im proly just dreamin

 

[macintologist]

.mac integration?

I think Apple is going to somehow integrate .Mac with Google. I think that is one of the big things coming up. Then you can integrate iCal and iPhoto with Google services somehow.

 

[GregA]

I think Apple is going to somehow integrate .Mac with Google. I think that is one of the big things coming up. Then you can integrate iCal and iPhoto with Google services somehow.

It would seem that Apple isn't much focussed on the online services side of thing. Partnering with Google could allow Apple to focus on their strengths while Google focusses on their own. I can't see any downside, really.

 

[bored911]

probably just iPhone stuff. though google apps coming standard on leopard would be cool

 

[GregA]

google apps coming standard on leopard would be cool

Why?

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Example: decent spreadsheet application with scientific functions. I've talked about this before but people seem to hate MS so much that they won't even entertain the notion that their product is miles better than anything apple have come up with.

So what you want is a Library of Pre-built Numerical Analysis Function Sets that can do a lot of the work for you, say perhaps when you're data storing output points along a series of sensors that record flow rates or heat transfer or what have you?

I'd like to see MathCad port to OS X myself.