Microsoft Bashes Apple's iWork Software, New iPads

[Michael Goff]

Actually, it would be historically funny if as Microsoft is about to go bankrupt, Apple pays Microsoft $150 million, and promises to port all it's iWork products to Windows devices.

And then Apple learns how to code for Windows, right?

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Microsoft still don't seem to get it. People do not want a refrigeroaster. If they want desktop operation on their lap Apple have that, and if they want an übercool tablet with state of the art software then they can choose that.

Your check is in the mail.

 

[HenryDJP]

The one thing I can't argue is that Word still trumps Pages on many levels. Basic word processing, no worries, you can choose either. But every time I launch Pages and want to do something a little more robust, I keep going back to Word.

Truth be told, even Word isn't the best. I'd prefer Frame Maker for professional quality docs creation, but Adobe axed OSX support years ago.

There really isn't a professional level word processing/publishing platform for Mac or iOS, more's the pity.

I keep hoping that Apple will beef up Pages to the point of professional, but no dice.

No offense but you don't know how to use Pages, plain and simple. I run an insurance office and I use Pages exclusively for creating our office banners, flyers and brochures for advertising and the tools in the Inspector offer so much more in three dimensional graphics and layout than Word could've ever think of. Word's tools resemble much of that stinking Publisher. Two dimensional and plain boring.

 

[Ferc Kast]

Definitely saw this one coming after yesterday's keynote. I only wondered how long it would take Microsoft to respond.

 

[IJ Reilly]

PDFs are generally fine. I use them all the time, but just a couple of times, I've had to deal with people using crap like Adobe Acrobat to view PDFs, and somehow, they can't open some things properly. Sigh...

They are probably using an outdated version. If they haven't updated a free app like Acrobat, then they probably aren't going to have the latest version of Word either.

 

[SusanK]

We're actually in agreement for most users. Then again, that person who is factoring in Office in the price could be using it as a work computer. I mean ... even some people at Microsoft use Macs.

The people I referred to were buying first Mac for personal use. Sorry, I was unclear.

 

[Michael Goff]

The people I referred to were buying first Mac for personal use. Sorry, I was unclear.

Ah.

Then I don't know. Most personal users don't need the power of Office. I was mostly saying that maybe they're going to use their computer, at times, for office work. Either that, or they've been trained to buy something that does more than they need it to.

That might be it.

 

[HenryDJP]

LOL @ all the haters who said Apple was going down after Steve Jobs. Microsoft was never THIS threatened by Apple while Steve was in town nor was Samsung stealing this much.

 

[hayesk]

No offense but you don't know how to use Pages, plain and simple. I run an insurance office and I use Pages exclusively for creating our office banners, flyers and brochures for advertising and the tools in the Inspector offer so much more in three dimensional graphics and layout than Word could've ever think of. Word's tools resemble much of that stinking Publisher. Two dimensional and plain boring.

No offense, but you don't know what he wants to do. It's a fact that Word has more features. Not opinion, but fact. They may not be implemented very well, but they're there. I agree that most use cases fit Pages very well, but there are some that you need Word.

And his comment on Frame Maker is spot on. There's nothing as reliable as Frame Maker for large documents. It's a shame Adobe killed it.

 

[ChrisTX]

Oh the surface, that tablet that I have seen......NOWHERE!

(Literally)

(Seriously, not even in the shops here!)

I've actually seen 1 in the wild, and literally only 1. The iPad on the other hand, is all over the place!

 

[motodc]

Apple wins, but...

I enjoy using Apple products, they seem to just be easier to use. I'm pretty much bought into the whole ecosystem. However, they do fall short of Microsoft's office apps.

Microsoft has been in the game for so long, and they have listened to their users. They may have created a monster of an Office suite with obtuse features that are sometimes tough to find and use, but it's very capable, and spot on for power users.

Where MS wins is features and functionality that power users like and need. It seems pretty consistent that Apple fails here: Final Cut X, Mail & Calendar apps, and their iWork suite too.

Apple tends to have better execution that covers 80% of users, but lacks features. This is one thing I'd love to see them change... they sure have the money to!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Actually, it would be historically funny if as Microsoft is about to go bankrupt, Apple pays Microsoft $150 million, and promises to port all it's iWork products to Windows devices.

 

[wingsabre]

Tried the new touched based pages, and it's way better than what was there before. It works, and that will work for most people, however it's not as robust as Word and Word is an industry standard. I like formatting my reports and papers a certain way, and every time I convert it to different format, whether it be .doc or .pdf files the format changes slightly.

Numbers don't even compare to Excel. I have accounting friends who have tried to adapt to Numbers, and it's just not on the same level as Excel. It's like NFL vs JV football. Excel just does more and have way more applet written for it.

Keynote is better than Powerpoint, however converting Keynote to Powerpoint for mass consumption is appalling. MS office suite is an industry standard. You could create the best Keynote presentation out there, but if others can't read it or work with it, it's not going to work.

Outlook is an archaic product. People can make fun of it all they want, but it's one of those tone death arguments against Microsoft. Microsoft like almost every tech company out there are moving services towards the cloud. It's more secure to access email online and not download email.

Onenote is actually a great note taking device, both on the PC and on the iPad.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I really hope you do mean that jokingly.

Which? The first, second, or third paragraph?

 

[Renzatic]

I have been using Pages for everything since version 1.0 and have never bumped up against any limitations, so I have to wonder where you have found them. Just because it is easier to learn doesn't mean it lacks depth. This it seems to me is a basic fallacy at work.

I'll admit you obviously have more experience with both of them than I do, but my time with both showed me that there's more you can do with Office than you can Pages.

Even among the simple, expected things, like layout and formatting, images borders, drop shadows, effects, you have more options and more control over the end result in Office than you do in Pages. Granted, Pages gives you nicer results with less effort, which makes it the better for your average home user/college student. But if I were designing something for publishing, and I wanted that extra something to make it stand out from the rest, I'd probably go with Office.

I won't say Pages is better because it's more elegant and streamlined than Word, and I won't say Word is better because it allows for a finer level of control. Much like anything, it all depends on what you need and what you want.

 

[CFreymarc]

Yet the % of folks using the alternatives is shrinking. Your supposition and reality, sadly, do not match.

Forget where I read the story - Ars, /., here, etc... It was within the last two days.

I dispute those "facts" as MS BS. Redmond is the master at spin to avoid hiring good engineers.

 

[Bibbler]

I see more iPad users than Office users in corporations.

Obviously you don't get out much....

I'm sorry, but that is the silliest statement I have read on any discussion forum in years - and that's saying a lot.

 

[Identity Fraud]

I got to say he's right on some remarks. Surface certainly is better for productivity. Apple definitely should address the more professional market with a tablet that kind of molds the iPad and macbook. Sort of like what Microsoft did.

The competition among tablets meant for consuming content is getting extremely rough with Google and Amazon bringing out tablets as loss-leaders. That's really hard to compete with in the long run. Sure, their products might not be on par with Apple's, but they certainly have the capital and business model to make them almost as good. But at a lower price.

MS made a tablet for a professional work environment but is marketing it to the prosumer/consumer market because *thats* where the profits are - this is something that Apple knows and executes well on.

 

[Michael Goff]

Which? The first, second, or third paragraph?

Second and third, mostly. The first is mainly opinion, so I can't really say anything about it.

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I dispute those "facts" as MS BS. Redmond is the master at spin to avoid hiring good engineers.

When all else fails, plug your ears and say 'lalalala'.

 

[HenryDJP]

No offense, but you don't know what he wants to do. It's a fact that Word has more features. Not opinion, but fact. They may not be implemented very well, but they're there. I agree that most use cases fit Pages very well, but there are some that you need Word.

No offense back cha but let people speak for themselves. He doesn't need a Liaison and you don't know what he wants to do either. I made a clear point that Pages isn't some software that should only be used at home and considered a "light-weight" app because it's not. I've worked in a corporate environment for years and while you might feel that Word gets used for everything it does, it doesn't. It's generally used for word-processed documents shared around the company. Word is so much less relevant today than it ever was.

 

[512ke]

I know this is kind of irrelevant, but I'll just remind us that Microsoft Word started on the Mac:

http://cdn1.appleinsider.com/DOSvsMacintosh2.jpg

I've still got it running on my vintage 512ke. It's been the dominant word processing program for an amazing 25 years. 25 years!

Nothing lasts forever, I guess. Not Microsoft's dominance, or Apple's, or even Google's.

I was just reading about the Firefox OS today... lol

 

[harlequinn]

before launching into a long-winded rant that positions the Surface and the Surface 2 as better productivity devices, insinuating that Apple doesn't understand productivity.

By definition for it to be a rant there needs to be obvious anger of which there is none.

He doesn't insinuate Apple doesn't understand productivity, he makes an open claim.

Why is this even news? They make a competing product and he wants to extol its virtues while knocking competing products, which is an ages old practice.

Microsoft Office Suite is the defacto standard, and when you need to give your own product away to increase your market penetration you know that you're not currently winning. It's a similar tactic to how Microsoft increased their Internet Explorer user base (which worked astoundingly well).

 

[StyxMaker]

This is just too funny. Microsoft, after close to a couple decades... is getting Netscaped....LOL

BTW... if none of you have tried it before. OpenOffice is pretty kick ass. I bounce between using that and Pages/Numbers when I use a word processor or spreadsheet. I've got MS Office on my Mac... but like all MS crap... it still does some kind of weird crap, and the interface get's annoying. Anyway.... this article made for a good laugh.

I boot into Bootcamp once or twice a year to use MS Publisher to produce small booklets that an organization I belong to needs. If I had some software that would do the same thing I'd be delighted to delete Bootcamp and never use an MS product agaim.

 

[Michael Goff]

By definition for it to be a rant there needs to be obvious anger of which there is none.

He doesn't insinuate Apple doesn't understand productivity, he makes an open claim.

Why is this even news? They make a competing product and he wants to extol its virtues while knocking competing products, which is an ages old practice.

Microsoft Office Suite is the defacto standard, and when you need to give your own product away to increase your market penetration you know that you're not currently winning. It's a similar tactic to how Microsoft increased their Internet Explorer user base (which worked astoundingly well).

Wait.

You're saying competitors talk crap about each other?

 

[epollyon]

Apple tends to have better execution that covers 80% of users, but lacks features. This is one thing I'd love to see them change... they sure have the money to!

werd. as far as tablets go, i also think that apple needs to throw in a stylus. maybe an uber pro version? i'm going into clinicals and i am being forced to buy a windows or an android tab because apple doesn't do wacom stylus. so, as long as we are wishing apple did stuff differently, i'm going to wish that they implement a wacom digitizer.

i've used MS stuff a lot and i find pages does a lot of the same stuff but much more intuitively. there is a lot of bloat in Word and it is extremely buggy when it comes to word wrapping, graphics, and tables. Excel is still unparalleled, however.

 

[hayesk]

No offense back cha but let people speak for themselves. He doesn't need a Liaison and you don't know what he wants to do either.

It's a public forum. If you can't handle that, send him a private message. You made a assumption that he could use Pages for his tasks. My argument was not based on knowing what he wants to do. Yours was.

I made a clear point that Pages isn't some software that should only be used at home and considered a "light-weight" app because it's not. I've worked in a corporate environment for years and while you might feel that Word gets used for everything it does, it doesn't.

I never said that. And first of all, I agree with you. Pages can be used for a lot of things. But without knowing what he wanted to do, you can't say that he should use Pages instead of Word. Again, it's a fact that Word has more features - his tasks may have required some them.

It's generally used for word-processed documents shared around the company. Word is so much less relevant today than it ever was.

Again, I agree. People are waking up to the fact that Office has far more features than people are willing to use, or even have the skills to learn to use. But it does have some uses.