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Microsoft Launching Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad Today

Renzatic said:
I can still see the appeal of a one time charge. From what I've seen of Word, I'd be willing to pay $50-$60 for each one, no problem. It's a great app, and it's obvious a lot of work went into it.

But with a subscription model, you don't get that feeling of ownership. It's one of those "in your head" things, I know. As far as pure usage goes, there isn't that much difference between owning a piece of software, and subscribing to it for roughly the same price. The added bonus of perpetual upgrades and tons of cloud space should make it an even sweeter deal than just buying it outright. But still, it's a mental barrier some people can't get past, and I can kinda understand why, if not necessarily agree with it 100%.
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Σ(●ﾟдﾟ●) ... I see no different with home loan or even car loan. The house is not really yours when the loan paid in full. When you default on your loan, your house will taken away from banks. I really see the benefit of subscription method, instead of buying software for 600 dollars, I am laying for little every year with lots of devices I am using and get updates for free
 
Steve121178 said:
365 is a good deal. You can install it on up to 5 of your computers as well.

It's a no brainer. I have a TechNet subscription, but when TechNet is retired later this year I'll have no hesitation in signing up.
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No. It's not a good deal. Especially when you consider the far cheaper, equally powerful options out there. Options which don't require a costly subscription and regular blood-letting wallet-raping from Micro$oft.


After the whole XBox One debacle where M$ tried to rob their customers and then panicked and backed down when everyone said they won't buy the consoles, the appalling Windows 8, and the fact that every single piece of software from M$ is massively overpriced, bloated and buggy- I am determined NEVER to give them a single penny more as long as I live.
 
For people who already have a 365 subscription, this is a no-brainer. Not only do you get 5 installs between Mac and PC, but they use their cloud service to be able to access/edit documents across all the devices tied to your account. If you only use the iWork apps though, it's really not worth the subscription fee. Someone else in this thread mentioned the enterprise, and I think that's where this will have the biggest impact, because it will make iPads even more attractive to IT departments with these apps available for them.
 
The Bogeyman said:
No. It's not a good deal. Especially when you consider the far cheaper, equally powerful options out there. Options which don't require a costly subscription and regular blood-letting wallet-raping from Micro$oft.


After the whole XBox One debacle where M$ tried to rob their customers and then panicked and backed down when everyone said they won't buy the consoles, the appalling Windows 8, and the fact that every single piece of software from M$ is massively overpriced, bloated and buggy- I am determined NEVER to give them a single penny more as long as I live.
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I have not find anything is equally powerful than Microsoft Office, at least not on PC or Mac side. 365 gets you 5 computers and 5 mobile devices, extra 20GB One Drive storage, Skype minutes. I am failing to see how this is not a good deal.

I have tried those free office programs, like Open Office and iWork, they are just not equal with MS office.
 
MacRumorUser said:
You can view / share documents for free, to edit you need an office 365 subscription.


you can sign up for a free 30 day trial of Office 365 at http://www.office.com/try
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subscription, which is why I have moved over to Libre Office and for the few times I really need word I have office 2008 running in a VM sitting on an external HD which I take with me so I can use it at work and at home. Its quite likely that is the last version of office I will own, I refuse to rent software.
 
I have to be honest, Pages looks far more optimised to the iPad.

The real question is not whether people will download these apps (they're free afterall), but whether a user is influenced by the app to sign up for a 365 subscription. This seems like the real deal-breaker, as those who want to use Office solely on a tablet/mobile device are not going to like the idea of a subscription model and the price. You're not getting the full desktop experience, so it seems rather hard on those users who may not even own a PC/laptop to have to pay the full admission price for a slimmed down application.
 
Snowy_River said:
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the subscription model does a lot to eliminate the motivation from the developer to continue to innovate. If they keep getting paid for the work they did last year, why do they need to do more work this year?
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Playing devil's advocate here...

Maybe a subscription model is better long term for software users?

Software publishers could focus on making their programs fast, efficient and bug free instead of adding tons of bloated bling to generate new revenue from new versions.

They wouldn't have to invent flashy new hard to use interfaces just to put lipstick on a pig in order to sell the next release.

Maybe they'd listen to their current customers and fix things and improve things because if they don't the user could stop paying at any moment. Unlike the current model where the don't really care because they've already got your money.
 
JAT said:
Hilarious. Read-only for free. Thanks, guys. :rolleyes:

Mail.app does that.
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Actually no....

The company I work in use MS Office a lot, and we use PowerPoint extensively, and yes the iPad can do basic viewing of PPTs, but screws it up pretty bad - borders, tables and formatting is all over the place and Keynote is not much better either. For me of be able to, for free, get the full apps and view documents and presentations as they were created is actually pretty great.

Can see my self creating customer presentations on my laptop (still PCs) and take them out to present on the iPad a lot! In these circumstances I need to make sure the presentations and all formatting is exactly as I made it. Great job Microsoft.
 
Office is far superior to anything Apple can come up with but I'm sure as hell not a fan of this subscription bollocks. Same with Adobe Cloud, I just can't see the point of paying money a month - have I bought it or am I just renting it?
 
deluxeshredder said:
Except for Keynote.
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Yeah I agree. Keynote ('09, not the new one) is seriously good. PowerPoint has more 'features' but Keynote just packs everything together so well.

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Plutonius said:
But is it really worth having it if you need an Office 365 subscription to edit / create content ?
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As I have a 365 subscription (student discount, personally I couldn't justify paying the full price) it's a no-brainer. But I agree it's a tough sell for someone 'on the outside' looking in.
 
The subscription model for MS Office has been the goal for a while now. If you need it then it's probably worth it.

Corporate USA was probably going to have to subscribe eventually, anyway. Having an iPad app included is icing.

This is going to sell a lot of iPads to companies that haven't already adopted them. That's probably the worst thing about this for MS.
 
petvas said:
Apple is happy today to see Office for the iPad:
  1. It confirms iPad's leading position in the Enterprise
  2. Apple gets 30% from every in-app purchase :)
  3. It confirms the iPad as a predominant client in the tablet space
  4. It is an admission of Microsoft's defeat in mobile. At least they decided to make lots of money out of it!
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365 isn't an in-app purchase. The Office suite is free to download so that Microsoft don't have to give up that 30% on an initial purchase.
 
Rip Off

So wait, I have to pay $9.99 a month to be able to create documents on my iPad, when I can use Cloudon and create Microsoft Office docs and save them in the cloud and access them and edit them?

This is just as stupid as One Note for iPad where you can't attach files to your workspace unless you use the Windows version.

Not interested.
 
The Bogeyman said:
No. It's not a good deal. Especially when you consider the far cheaper, equally powerful options out there. Options which don't require a costly subscription and regular blood-letting wallet-raping from Micro$oft.


After the whole XBox One debacle where M$ tried to rob their customers and then panicked and backed down when everyone said they won't buy the consoles, the appalling Windows 8, and the fact that every single piece of software from M$ is massively overpriced, bloated and buggy- I am determined NEVER to give them a single penny more as long as I live.
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Nothing in your post is factual. And Microsoft are a business, they will charge a price that they think the market will pay. Like, errr, Apple.

If you are an Office user, then Office 365 is a great deal. The fact that 365 users can now use Office on their iPad as part of their subscription is HUGE.

Then there's the Enterprise which is where this is really aimed at. Office on iPad is a huge win for Microsoft AND Apple. That's why Tim Cook is so happy about it. He knows it will help shift a lot of iPad's at the expense of Android tablets.
 
Why is everyone crying over the subscription prices, but happily paying Apple's exorbitant prices to upgrade the ipad's memory? Each company knows who, what and where to gouge.
 
So let me get this right...
I've already paid nearly $300 (Australian) for Microsoft Office for my Mac now I have to pay an extra $120 (Au) a year so I can read/write those documents on my iPad?
And people reckon Micro$oft have woken-up to what year it is?!?!?

I'll be sticking with Documents To Go for $12 thanks very much :mad:
 
miniroll32 said:
365 isn't an in-app purchase. The Office suite is free to download so that Microsoft don't have to give up that 30% on an initial purchase.
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:confused: why does it show Office 365 Home for $99.99 under In-App Purchases in the App Store?
 
So they just made Office for Android free including editing, saving, etc. Will they do this for iOS as well? Not that I really care as I don't rock an ipad anymore, but just curious.
 
I paid $50/ea for two Office 365 cards on eBay, so I got two years for $100. I was paying $140-160 every couple years for Office, so cost feels the same to me.

Obviously not as great a deal if you pay retail for the subscription, but being able to put Office legally on all of my work machines, and now on my iPad, I'm thrilled. With how well this mobile app works, I can easily recommend the package.
 
MisakixMikasa said:
Σ(●ﾟдﾟ●) ... I see no different with home loan or even car loan. The house is not really yours when the loan paid in full. When you default on your loan, your house will taken away from banks. I really see the benefit of subscription method, instead of buying software for 600 dollars, I am laying for little every year with lots of devices I am using and get updates for free
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Oh, I can see the benefits of it, and it's not really all that expensive, depending on how often you use it, and how much you end up leaning on Skydrive. You get a good deal of stuff for roughly the price of one halfway decent medium pizza a month.

...but it's the perception of the thing that some people are getting hung up on, and there's not much you can really do about it. It's the difference between an ongoing cost vs. one up front price. Paying even a little bit at a time can and will turn some people off. Plus, software as a service has as much potential for abuse as it does benefits. Though unlike Photoshop, if you unsubscribe, you can at least still access and open your documents.
 
rexone said:
So let me get this right...
I've already paid nearly $300 (Australian) for Microsoft Office for my Mac now I have to pay an extra $120 (Au) a year so I can read/write those documents on my iPad?
And people reckon Micro$oft have woken-up to what year it is?!?!?

I'll be sticking with Documents To Go for $12 thanks very much :mad:
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If you paid that recently for Office, you burned yourself. There is a student edition for far less that anyone can buy, or 365 does give Office on any platform you might want under one price. They've simply added iPad as a platform today.

The debate about the 365 price is a different debate.
 
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