Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do we really need Office X?

menoinjun

menoinjun

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 7, 2001
567
0
Ladies and Gents,

I propose this question to you...do we (specifically Apple of course) really need to be so dependant on Office X and Microsoft in particular?

I ask this question because of the power that Appleworks provides us. AppleWorks is a fully featured suite that can handle anything a standard consumer can throw at it. If I didn't have a copy of Office X, I would be completely satisfied with AppleWorks. It is completely compatable with Word (all versions) and Excel (all versions). It has a very decent presentation program, and has great templates and even a drawing program.

I understand that Apple's corporate marketshare depends on Microsoft's Office app, and that Apple is just barely clinging to life in the corporate world. What is stopping Apple from completly pimping out AppleWorks to Office status? It can easily be just as powerful as Office very easily, and Apple has the resources to do it. I say that Apple keeps the current version of AppleWorks for the consumers and still offers if free with the iMacs and the iBooks, but makes a "pro" version for sale for about $200-$300 for businesses. That way Apple could be rid of the dependence they have with Microsoft, and also increase marketshare. The "pro" version would be on par (feature-wise) that Office is, and would compete directly with it.

This couldn't happen without a rigorous campaign of advertising also, of course. Another round of "myths" and another page on Apple's website could generate a lot of exposure. Maybe even a $50 rebate to existing owners of Office to switch to AppleWorks when they upgrade.

Any comments?
 
Yes.

As M$ has demonstrated time and again, it doesn't matter what capabilities and benefits competitors offer. What matters are appearances, marketing and leverage.

M$ has the market on office apps pretty well wrapped up. Do I use it? Nope. Do most people use it. Yep. Do the people who don't use it know about it? Yep. Do they have to send and receive documents with users of Office? Yep. Do other office apps make concessions because of that? You bet.

Its amazing the effect these apps have on the professional world.

Matthew
 
Remember Mac Office? That one didn't do to well against MS. Apple dosen't like to make the same mistake twice.Also, as much as I hate to admit it - I love Microsoft's Office X. Especially Entourage. I don't think there's a better e-Mail program for OS X.
The only thing I would fault Office for is it's stability (mainly Word). Unlike most OS X applications, Word seems the most unstable. It just means that I save more (old school style) and make sure to not run too many apps beside it.
 
I don't like Office in particular, but . . .

My company uses it, my clients use it, and almost everyone uses it. I would love to use something like Appleworks or Thinkfree office suite (www.thinkfree.com), but I would still have to use MS Office to make sure my files will be read properly by my clients or anyone else I send them to.
 
My father at work sometimes has to send messages back and forth from him computer, which is a Mac, to someone who uses Microsoft Word on a PC. He says that he may need to upgrade to Office X for Mac OS X, unfortunately.

This is mainly because the PCs cannot read Appleworks documents, according to him.
_______________

Any time is a great time for iPod.
 
Now that I think about it . . .

You know, we (and I mean both consumers and businesses) could ween ourselves off our dependence on the Microsoft Office monopoly--for it is indeed a monopoly--if we would all just pay a one-time fee in money and time to switch over to an alternative. People will always say, "Yeah, I'd love to change, but it would cost us too much to . . ." blah, blah, blah.

But remember that this was the same excuse companies and many consumers made in sticking with their DOS-equiped PCs than 15 years ago when the Mac was introduced. Windows 95 was more or less a PC version of Mac OS 90 (or even 85). By refusing to incur a one-time expense in time, energy, and money, PC users effectively delayed the evolution of popular computing by almost a decade. Had PC users simply migrated to the Mac back in the 80s, who knows where the industry would be now?

Are we making the same mistake by sticking with Office? Just a question I'd like to throw out.
 
Originally posted by King Cobra

This is mainly because the PCs cannot read Appleworks documents, according to him.
Click to expand...

This is true, but Appleworks can save AS word and excel files. Why doesn't he just do that?

This is my point...with a little advertising to get people to realize that Appleworks is completely compatable with office...then we wouldn't need office. I admit...I like Work X. But I like Appleworks 6 also, and would rather use that to support apple.

-pete
 
the only reason I use office is for word because it has grammar checking. as far as I know thats not in appleworks. if it was, i'd for sure move over, cuz word has so much crap in it that I dont use, and I know the interface better having used clarisworks before office. I think that office is a great product, but IMO its a bit overkill. I also use excel a little, but I could easily do all that stuff in appleworks. the cross platform compatability is nice though. although I really really really really really really hate acrobat and the part of adobe that makes it, it would be convenient if, say, the portable document format was substituted for the office doc format. that would keep cross platform compatability, and you can get a viewer for free. can't you also embed fonts in acrobat? I know acrobat is used a lot in the printing community, but it's really sad to see so many other manuals and things that have been done in acrobat which could have been done in HTML.
 
never used it

unfortunately, i've never used appleworks.

i guess it's the kind of thing that could happen and go over quite well, or it could blow up in peoples' faces.

are there definite things that office can do that appleworks can't? if not, and it's that much cheaper (like 70 bucks instead of a few hundred eh?) then it seems like the kind of thing that could at least be possible.

if they renew the contract in the upcoming months, then it would seem dumb to attempt the switch. but at the same time, that would allow them the comfort of "if the switch doesn't catch on, people can still use office for mac and we'll be alright for at least a few years". if they don't, then it seems like they'd almost have to do this.

the imacs come with appleworks? if so, i can check it out when i get to see my parents' new imac...
 
I don't use M$sucks office. Appleworks does me fine.
but for the buisnesses out ther appleworks just doesn't cut it
it doesn't have half the features office does
but me
I don't need it appleworks does me fine
 
*We* dont need to be dependent on it, but *they* do. They being converts. When I talk to clones and tell them they can take their office docs straight to a mac, no problems, they perk right up. Marketing is all about perception, my friend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back