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Microsoft Bashes Apple's iWork Software, New iPads

PinkyMacGodess said:
Apple wasn't breathing fumes, it was practically breathing DIRT! Apple could have been bankrupt in weeks, if not days... Steve was brought back because no one thought he could save it. And he did...

But if Apple was bankrupt, Microsoft could just easily bid on the carcass of Apple. No anti-competition issues then...
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Back then Microsoft was king, and everybody wanted or needed their products. It was the new IBM of the time.

By Microsoft helping keep Apple competitive it showed that Microsoft was willing to do anything to keep out of the monopoly courts. By buying the shares they were able to not only show they were willing to help Apple but also sell the shares later for a healthy profit.

I'm sure if you look hard enough on the Internet you'll find the story behind it all. I've just generalised it for you.
 
I think that people who ask for an Apple device for the "pro" users are missing the point.

The iPad is for the masses. If you want a highly productive device with card slots, keyboard and USB get a MACBOOK AIR!

And those defending MS Office, have you truly given alternatives a real go??
 
AdonisSMU said:
The people who use office aren't the pros. Those are the paper pushers in management who don't actually produce anything.
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The ones you mention are the ones that would have enough with the Web apps or at most with LibreOffice or Open Office.

You might have a different experience, but most of the Phd candidates and researchers I know use Office for their tasks (unless they requiere a really specialized software, of course).
 
I have exported many a pages document, and imported many a word document without any issues whatsoever, on my iPad. Just because many buyers use it for media consumption (because it does it so well), does not make statements about the iPad not being suitable for work or business true. To the contrary, such statements are patently false. Regardless of personal preferences, the iPad can easily create complex documents and presentations. Been there, done that. To claim it is not suitable for such tasks is simply a lie. And it really makes Microsoft sound unnecessarily desperate.
 
That's what Surface is. A single, simple, affordable device that helps you both lean in and kick back. Let's be clear - helping folks kill time on a tablet is relatively easy. Give them books, music, videos and games, and they'll figure out the rest. Pretty much all tablets do that.

But helping people be productive on a tablet is a little trickier. It takes an understanding of how people actually work, how they get things done, and how to best support the way they do things already.

The good news is that Microsoft understands how people work better than anyone else on the planet.
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That's not actually true, in fact Microsoft's poor understanding of how people work is why I'm finding myself using Apple's software more and more. I used to be a die hard Windows fan, but the software just doesn't work.

I like to use laptops for my work and the problem I always ran into is Microsoft's poor resource management meant that when I ran windows I would eat through battery power constantly, 2 to 3 times faster on the same hardware.

Apple understands that power efficiency is job number one.

On top of that I can have literally hundreds of workspaces open and they take no additional power, and I can switch through those workspaces incredibly easily using hot corners. Windows has one workspace which is much less productive. Imagine if you had to destroy your desk at home and start from scratch every time you went to the kitchen and set up the workspace there. In OS X I can have different workspaces that focus on different tasks and they are persistent, meaning I don't have to close all windows and programs to open an arrangement of other desktops. It also doesn't cost anything to keep these extra workspaces open because they are suspended properly, unlike in windows where they aren't.



Shaw goes on to suggest that since iWork has never "gotten much traction", Apple's decision to provide both free upgrades and free software to new users was insignificant as it was "already priced like an afterthought"
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You can't insult a product because of it's low price that defies logic. Here's an idea related to pricing, I actually think that the pricing of Microsoft's productivity products are incredibly insulting. Any monkey can put together a few basic office programs, it takes a clearly evil corporation to charge several hundred dollars in a bundle or per year for those basic programs.




and it's difficult to work on a device that "lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking." He also offers several bullet points that highlight the iPad's shortcomings, following up with a statement that Microsoft has "built a better solution for people everywhere."
Quote:
- The Surface and Surface 2 are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud.
- ... come with full versions of Office 2013, including Outlook, not non-standard, non-cross-platform, imitation apps that can't share docs with the rest of the world.
- ... offer additional native productivity enhancing capabilities like kickstands, USB ports, SD card slots and multiple keyboard options.
- ... include interfaces for opening multiple windows, either side by side or layered to fit the way most people actually work.
Shaw's anti-iWork comments follow Apple's own jabs at Microsoft, where Tim Cook took to the stage to question Apple's competitors.
Quote:
"Our competition is different. They're confused. They chased after netbooks, now they're trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows that they'll do next? I can't answer that question, but I can tell you that we're focused."
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iWork works better than office because I can use it on my iPhone and Mac seamlessly and both the iPad and my Mac laptop have much more battery power.

I do not need to enhance my productivity with a bunch of useless crap when I can't get the work done in the first place because my battery runs out and do it on multiple devices seamlessly. Surface, especially surface pro has insanely terrible battery life. It could print all of my word document on gold leaf and it will still be useless because it will be out of power in 2 and a half hours (yes I've tested the surface pro). My MacBook Air can easily do at least 6 and a half hours doing harder tasks (I had to change my behavior just to hope to get 2.5 hours on the surface pro) and I can edit the same document on my iPhone which automatically syncs while I wait for the metro with tools that have the same power. Office for iPhone on the other hand is a joke with no features.

The windows 8 interface is also incredibly annoying and counterproductive.

This whole quote honestly sounds like a reactionary statement by someone who is genuinely afraid of having their business die.
 
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AdonisSMU said:
Excel is not the gold standard isn databases... or even close. Oracle, MySQL, Riak, PostgreSQL are all FAAAAAAR and way more suited for a database. I mean you clearly don't know what you are talking about with that statement you made about Excel for a database.

Excel is only the gold standard in spreadsheets and spreadsheets alone and honestly I don't know how much longer that will last. If Apple adds javascript macros or something to their Numbers app it's a wrap.
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You're about right. I know practically nothing about databases, and only know enough to do what I need to do when it comes to spreadsheets.

Though from what I've seen, it's only the hardcore Apple contingent who gripes about how horrible Excel is. Everyone else seems to at least like it alright.
 
Marc-SP said:
The ones you mention are the ones that would have enough with the Web apps or at most with LibreOffice or Open Office.

You might have a different experience, but most of the Phd candidates and researchers I know use Office for their tasks (unless they requiere a really specialized software, of course).
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Again what features are they using with it? There isn't that much difference between Google Apps, iWork, and MSFT Office. There is only about 5-10% difference and for that 5-10% difference in functionality wouldn't you rather use a dedicated app or a bloated piece of crap?

Id argue Gmail has the best calendar email sync situation. Outlook has the conference room feature that I really like...that's it. The web interface is so terrible in Outlook that I don't ever use Outlook if it's not the native app version on my rMBP for work. Otherwise I use gMail and iCloud for email and calendar parts of office. For writing documents I use Google docs or Pages honestly... for spread sheets I use Numbers or Google docs... even though I have word, powerpoint and excel... I just don't need it and I haven't in so long it no longer matters. I won't open them up despite getting them free from every company I've ever worked for. The feature set for what people expect in office software is baked. There aren't going to be additional new features that are going to sway people away from their preferences at this point in time. If anything I see more and more edu's and companies going the Google Docs route for non mission critical stuff. That is the gateway to people moving away from msft products and using quick office and iWorks which work natively and offer similar enough functionality 9 out of 10 times.
 
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Northgrove said:
Haha, Reality Distortion Field? Apple doesn't even have a leader right now half as charismatic as Steve Jobs. This is as if Apple would have joked about Blue Screens of Death yesterday. So tired...

I kind of expected this comment however, with how important Office 365 is to Microsoft and Apple directly comparing that and its subscription free to iWork in iCloud for free and for everyone. This time, with Google having their own similar free offering, Microsoft is the black sheep. And that's problematic, when this is about their key product besides Windows itself. They just can't help themselves but get on the defensive. Going on about Reality Distortion Fields like an old bitter grandpa. Oh boy.
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I think MS rant is purely because of iCloud iWork competing directly with useless office 365. But MS is correct in terms of standards and usability but ultimately no one would pay subscription for office software if they have alternatives which are cheaper (free in this case both Apple and Google offer it free).

MS will not be able to milk from their cash cow Office Software anymore they used to do. Clever move by Apple
 
Ramchi said:
MS will not be able to milk from their cash cow Office Software anymore they used to do. Clever move by Apple
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Saying Office is doomed now that Apple is giving away iWork is about like saying Microsoft is doomed in enterprise now that the iPhone has airdrop.

olol it's all just networking, right? How hard can it be to hook a couple hundreds computers together and manage them?
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
Apple wasn't breathing fumes, it was practically breathing DIRT! Apple could have been bankrupt in weeks, if not days... Steve was brought back because no one thought he could save it. And he did...

But if Apple was bankrupt, Microsoft could just easily bid on the carcass of Apple. No anti-competition issues then...
Click to expand...


Yes, Steve did save Apple. He had cooperation from Bill Gates at that time.

Are we able to agree that each company has it's market and they serve it well?

Office is the standard for corporations. If my livelihood depended on interacting with corporations Office would be on my Mac.
 
What is "surface" ? Is it like an OS for MS tablets or something?
Couldnt even find much on it on google.
 
Renzatic said:
Ha! Funny!

...you did actually look, right?
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Of course i googled it. On google germany.

Surface is a "2-dimensional topological manifold" ... Whatever that is....

If its an OS ive never seen or consciously heard of it.
 
AdonisSMU said:
The web interface is so terrible in Outlook that I don't ever use Outlook if it's not the native app version on my rMBP for work.
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Well, it seems you really dislike Outlook.com, and that is fine, but most reviews like it, so cannot be so terrible.

http://reviews.cnet.com/e-mail/microsoft-outlook-com-e/4505-3536_7-35404526.html
Excellent inbox organizational tools, and complete SkyDrive integration. It doesn't serve personalized ads, and it's all wrapped up in a simple, easy-to-use interface.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2013/02/23/outlook-microsoft-email/1933337/
Microsoft did a good job refreshing its email service

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407877,00.asp
Clean, simple, intuitive interface. Fast. Excellent mailbox


And you also did not say why people should not use the free Office web apps. Any reason to "escape" from them? :)


.
 
A few years ago I had a computer that rand Microsoft Windows. I used Microsoft Office with it's Outlook program I could read my email, keep track of my appointments and tasks and with Excel, Word, Powerpoint be as productive as I could want to be. I also used Microsoft Money to track my finances and Streets and trips gave me directions to anywhere I wanted to go. For fun I had a game Microsoft sold called Zoo Tycoon. Yes I was all Microsoft.

A few years later I switched to Apple. Started with the iPod, then iPhone, then iPad and then a MacBook Pro. The more I got into the Apple ecosystem the less I used Microsoft. Over the past 8-9 months I can honestly say that as far as productivity goes, iWork was taking over. My Windows laptop hasn't been turned on now in close to 3 months.

Yesterday I upgraded my Apple Ecosystem to Mavericks and iWork got upgraded, etc. after playing with iWork and Mavericks along with iOS7 which was done last month I can honestly say Goodbye Microsoft. I don't need you any longer. I can be highly productive using my Apple products. Numbers, Pages, Keynote, iPhoto all give me the tools to be as productive that I need to be.
 
Renzatic said:
Ah. Here in Google US, all you have to do is type "Surface", and...

Means a whole bunch of stuff that constitutes a whole lot of flat. :p
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Ok I get it now.
Looks like MS is at it with their tile crap again.
I bought a windows phone in the beginning of the year. A Lumia 900. Mainly because I had a voucher at the electronic store and the phone was half price.
Its a bulky but nice phone.
But the software.. Oh dear!!
Then I bought windows 8 to run it in boot camp. Took forever to install and after a few uses just broke.... MS support said I gotta reinstall :mad:
I dont know what Microsofts deal is.
Every operating system they made since DOS just plain sucked!
 
awwwww, this reminds me of when the guy at google was like Android is the most secure OS :confused::eek::D:D

same reaction here - we just all wanna get paid and keep our jobs ;)
 
I can see where Microsoft wants to go with the Surface Pro (not the Surface) - The problem is the've screwed up:

On the Surface: Why create a separate OS for phones and surface tables? You've just introduced more hurdles, and larger barriers to entry for anyone trying to develop software for the platform. They lose $1 Billion - and now up it again - with very little difference between generations. You've also sent a mixed marketing message where Surface can cannibalize Surface Pro sales

On the Surface Pro: I think the surface pro is a genuinely innovative, logical progression in the tablet/laptop space. The problem is the Surface Pro is a poor implementation. I dislike the kickstand, lack of trackpad while in PC mode, etc... It adds up to a big miss to me.

I think Apple will do something very similar. The difference is, I think Apple will hit a home run. Mostly because do a better job thinking about their products, and secondly, because they can learn from the mistakes that Microsoft is making with the Pro.
 
Quite frankly, iWorks will never see mass appeal or adoption for the mere fact that it is not available on Windows computers. A productivity tool cannot thrive when it's only available for a minority group of consumers.
 
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