Originally posted by Snowy_River
Well, you said:
Thus implying that AppleWorks is only available on a Mac.
That's an incorrect inference. I was saying Apple *should* upgrade AppleWorks such that it gives Windows users envy...as in future tense, not past or present.
"with the exception of the 2-3 people who ever purchased AppleWorks for Windows, the overwhelming majority of Windows users would never consider AppleWorks as a replacement for MS Office"
Perhaps, but perhaps not.
Perhaps Apple should fight only the fights it knows it can win and battle for what benefits the company as a whole. Microsoft already has a fully developed multi-platform widely adopted office suite. This is hugely core to their business, arguably more core to their business than Windows. In the face of any real competition, they could:
1) Drop the price to an extremely low level
2) Bundle with Windows
3) Alter the file formats to prevent compatibility
There would be legal issues to #2 above, but there could be ways around it. The point is that:
Office Suite = not core to Apple's business
Office Suite = central core to MS
This fight is not worth it, nor is it one that Apple could win. It makes only slightly more sense than the whackos who want Apple to create its own browser to compete with Explorer.
I think that there would be a number of people who would strongly disagree with you. Indeed, there are a number of computer companies that have stopped packaging MS Office on their computers, and instead have been packaging Corel's WordPerfect Suite. (And I've known many people that greatly prefer WordPerfect to MS Office.)
Sorry, I should have said a competitive, better, less expensive on both platforms. I left out the word "competitive". Can you name a single office suite that is multi-platform and gets on average better reviews than MS Office, let alone costs less and is a serious competitive threat? There have been numerous attempts by *software* companies over the years, but nobody has come close to being a real threat.
Sure there are computer makes bundling Joe's Office Suite or whatever, but these only fall within the bottom margin of the line that Microsoft draws for pricing which *optimizes* profits. The key word there is "optimizes". Again, Microsoft could drastically reduce the price of Office or Works and still maintain profits on those products. They could even further reduce OEM prices while maintaining profits....just not optimal profits.
Microsoft has all of the power in the marketplace when it comes to office suites, for better or for worse, this is the case. The only chance any competitor has is to position their product outside of the scope of where Microsoft sees optimal profits.
This is why AppleWorks should continue with its original primary mission and not attempt foolishly to compete with Microsoft.
I think that there is one simple reason why Apple would want an office product to position against MS Office, and that is to loosen MS's choke hold on the Apple system. Currently MS can issue a powerful threat to completely drop support for Office on the Mac system. But if Apple had their own Office software that was "100%" compatible with MS Office, this would take a lot of the power out of that threat.
I agree that AppleWorks should be as compatible as possible with Office (for a variety of reasons). But it doesn't make sense to compete directly with Office. It's a bit like saying you want to go to war, because of the threat of a potential war, but you know in the end you can't win unless your enemy just doesn't care enough to fight you.
