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Apple iWrite?

Originally posted by Westside guy
Well I've got to risk some flames here...

There are a LOT of things Microsoft does poorly - but Office is not one of them.
Click to expand...

no flame from me, but i would say it is their only good product.
 
So if keynote is competing with powerpoint and iWrite is competing with word how long will it take for apple to make a spreadsheet program?
 
Originally posted by Westside guy
Well I've got to risk some flames here...

There are a LOT of things Microsoft does poorly - but Office is not one of them. Certainly they've added everything plus the kitchen sink to it, but at the base it's a great suite. Unlike most other MS products that are now de-facto "standards", this one didn't get to that point by MS abusing the power of their monopoly - Office has never been all that cheap, after all, compared to its competitors.

I'm sure Apple can make a great office suite if they put their mind to it, but this is the one area where Microsoft can effectively compete in terms of quality.
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Word is lackluster if you've ever used WordPerfect. I would rather use WordPerfect any old day then to use Word because it's very easy to learn interface.

Powerpoint for me is a joke and all those crappy clipart are pretty much worthless to me because like most folks they pull clipart from another program.

MS Outlook and Excel are about the only thing worthwhile in Office and even those products have problems.

If Corel would start making WordPerfect for Mac again I'd buy it in heartbeat.
 
Re: Re: Don't jump to conclusions

Posted by me in another forum
All the need is a decent Word Processor/Office Suite with and "i" version included in the iApp package (iOffice anybody) and you get 99% of the things an average user needs right out of the box.
Click to expand...
I hope I am right... for once.
 
It would be absolutely super to have an Apple equivalent to MS Office. I have effectively phased out use of PowerPoint and use Keynote exclusively for my lectures and presentations now, and have almost completely transitioned from Word to AppleWorks over the last 6 to 8 months or so. Despite regular use (nearly daily) of AppleWorks though, I still find it clunky and, dare I say, less intiutive than Word (it could, of course, be that I used Word for about 7 years). And the spreadsheet portion of AppleWorks is woefully inadequate compared to Excel, and I am by no means an Excel "power user;" I just find its formatting abilities easier to use and more flexible than AppleWorks. All that said, I would GLADLY purchase a TRUE alternative to Office if it had greater feature parity than the current AppleWorks program - ESPECIALLY if voice recognition stuff was part of it - how cool would THAT be!?!?
 
certainly a suite to compete with ms office would be a huge step in the right direction for apple. the farther the company can distant themselves from ms is certainly for the better.

the suite would have to be perfectly compatible with office documents. such is integral if they hope for any success. we see a glimpse of this in keynote. hopefully, apple can continue this elsewhere.
 
What Apple should do:
Make answers to Excel and Word much like Keynote is an answer to PowerPoint.

Make them 100% compatible with existing Office documents...and figure out how to convert that damn WordArt stuff too (makes the masses happy).

Release it for Mac OS X and Windows.

...for free.

Microsoft doesn't make much money on Windows...and the majority of its profits comes from Office sales.
You undercut Microsoft on all fronts with a FREE superior Apple product, and you start to erode the Office market share.
...MS doesn't like stuff like that :p

Yes, it's crazy.
Yes, it'll cost a good $50-100 Million dollars...but don't you think it's worth a shot?
 
Originally posted by thecow
So if keynote is competing with powerpoint and iWrite is competing with word how long will it take for apple to make a spreadsheet program?
Click to expand...

Not very long because their are many opensource apps that copy Excel look and feel and workings.

I myself still prefer WordPerfect over Office because Office for me is just too bloated when WordPerfect just seems just right.
 
Originally posted by greenstork
IMO, Microsoft Office is the glue that holds the monopoly together. It is the killer app in the consumer market and to a large extent, the enterprise market. If anyone can make a viable product to compete with Office, it will be the straw the breaks Microsoft.
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Sorry, but the glue that holds the monopoly togeather is Windows. YES Office is a Killer App. HOWEVER, ther have been several apps that have come and gone and were as-good-as or better-than Office. So why is Office such a huge success? Because everybody else uses Office. Somewhere along the line business decided Windows was cheaper, and Microsoft convinced them that, as long as they are going with Winows, they might as well go with the complete business solution.

There was a point where MS and Apple had a choice to make. MS went after the Enterprise/Business market, and Apple went after education/creative. Had they made different decisions, Apple could very well be the king and MS the underdog.

So, in conclusion, Apple would do well not to tick off MS/Adobe. It seems each of these companies seem to have their place: MS=Business, Apple=Video/Music, Adobe=print, Macromedia=web. Each of these companies have made forrays into each other's worlds, but have thus far been turned back (though Adobe has done well with video with After Effects).

Competition is good, but Apple has to choose it's battles, and Office Apps should not be one of them.
 
Originally posted by TylerL


Microsoft doesn't make much money on Windows...and the majority of its profits comes from Office sales.
You undercut Microsoft on all fronts with a FREE superior Apple product, and you start to erode the Office market share.
...MS doesn't like stuff like that :p

Yes, it's crazy.
Yes, it'll cost a good $50-100 Million dollars...but don't you think it's worth a shot?
Click to expand...

They could do that but I doubt it would be free unless it's free bundle with all New Mac purchases. They could still compete with MS just price it way below Office product's pricing.
 
iWrite

It's my tablet. Come to me...
humming my mantra of manifestation.
 
I know deep inside that this would be sucha great app, if only Apple had the gall to release it...

I have to admit though, MS Office, esp Word is a very very solid app on MacOSX and it would take a lot to compete against it...

I don't really know if there is a point
 
I have used both extensively, and I ABHOR WordPerfect.

I am loathe to admit that I have used no word processor or spreadsheet as good as Word and Excel, respectively.

Apple should really just develop an Office Suite, bite the R&D costs, and sit on it as an "emergency situation," or until that imaginary magic fantasy day when Apple has a significant market share.
 
Until then I'll still be using Office. Even yet I may just stick with Office since I've used it for so long. It'll really have to trump Word and Excel for me to dump Office altogether.
 
I don't think iWrite will be part of an office suite. the iapps are traditionally consumer products while professional apps have normal names. I think iWrite is one of three things:
1. A replacement for AppleWorks
2. Handwriting recognition software
3. Apple tablet.
 
If Apple does it right the FIRST time they might be able to pull the office market out from under M$'s feet. Than M$ might fall.
icon7.gif
 
Originally posted by BenRoethig
I don't think iWrite will be part of an office suite. the iapps are traditionally consumer products while professional apps have normal names. I think iWrite is one of three things:
1. A replacement for AppleWorks
2. Handwriting recognition software
3. Apple tablet.
Click to expand...

in response to 1), one program to replace the whole package of appleworks?
 
Safari style?

I have no idea as to the legalities and such, but isn't it possible that Stevey can pull off an open source app--a la Safari--but this time with OpenOffice?

I heard OpenOffice is ready to go on X but it needs a hearty dose of "aquafication".

Personally, I find OpenOffice very appealing (full Word file compatibility!). It would be interesting to see whether Apple could just feed off the open source community again.

-----------------
"Excuse me there, I want you to remember this face, this is the guy behind the guy behind the guy"
 
A number of thoughts:

  • I'm no MS apologist, but Word is a great app. I don't think Apple needs to compete with it and I don't think Apple thinks they need to compete with it.
  • PowerPoint, on the other hand, produced ugly presentations. There was good reason to compete with it.
  • The "i" prefix to the name (assuming, of course, that this even is a word processing app) means that it will be a consumer-level app, not be a pro-level app like Keynote or FinalCut or what have you.
  • AppleWorks, the consumer-level office app, is in desperate need of an update.
  • On the other hand, my worst nightmare is that MS will stop developing Office:Mac and will simply bundle VirtualPC with Office for Windows, forcing us all into VPC hell. Maybe iWrite will be a consumer-level app with such potential and promise that it could be considered a warning shot at MS to keep producing Office:Mac.
 
Something portable

iWrite sounds like something to do with pens, like on a PDA's screen. Ink allready does this on OS X but iWrite could be an application that is designed for that kind of input.

I am not so sure that Apple will create an office suite or a tablet PC but I am sure that they would not create a tablet and expect people to use Office X with it.
 
i still prefer the name 'document' - it is not so ambiguous...

I mean, I don't think that many people will ask "what's that for?" if they heard the name document, because for sucha long time, .doc has been associated with Word processing...

and the name 'document' would also imply 100% compatibility with Word... two birds with one stone
 
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