I think this is a very big possibility. Like the article said, the presence of these apps would really boost the App Store.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft 'Looking At' Bringing Office to Apple's Mac App Store
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
whenever this topic arises, i alway think of steve jobs and his billions. He got the whole world convinced that they need to paid handsomely for a ipod and an iphone every year. Brilliant!
Maybe Apple would consider giving Microsoft a special deal. After all, they're old buddies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOp5mBY9IY
Right? Right!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOp5mBY9IY
Right? Right!
Whenever this topic arises, I alway think of Steve Jobs and his billions. He got the whole world convinced that they need to paid handsomely for a iPod and an iPhone every year. Brilliant!
sorry, I had not brought an iPod in 5 years.
I don't own an iPhone.Whilst this may be true to an extent for every day home use, it isn't the case for business users. I'm reasonably sure that anyone who uses Excel most of the day, as I do, would agree.
Furthermore, to those who use OpenOffice and it's own file formats, only yesterday I was talking to someone at work who, when assessing candidates for a job, had been sent a CV in an apparently unreadable file format. It was an OpenOffice file format, and in a company where no software or system changes can be made by end users, he had no quick way of assessing this prospective employee's details.
He assured me that he'd 'try again later', but I imagine events took over and no doubt that person was left at the bottom of the pile, CV unread.
Just back to the App Store debate, I would be quite surprised too if Microsoft would be willing to take a 30% cut, considering the software is available for download on their own website, at no discount to them. Then again, I suppose convenience is king, and they could view it as a nice way of selling individual components.
His point still stands even though you haven't bought one in 5 years.sorry, I had not brought an iPod in 5 years.
Last edited:
Ah a pet peeve of mine. Employers ought to be taking PDFs not an editable format (I know some do).
Last edited:
Forgive me, you are correct. I must address his point at least partially.
SJ and company has to constantly, through market forces and technological advances, build new and better iPods. Apple although extremely successful with the iPod, has competitions. Bill Gates and Microsoft are essentially a law firm who happens to sell software.
sorry, I had not brought an iPod in 5 years.
You are missing out.
Well, maybe not...I'll bet that brown Zune will have some serious eBay value in a few years. And, as rare as Windows Phones are, I'd recommend investing in a couple dozen - you could corner the market.
I agree with that. Personally, I wish they'd split up the Office Suite into individual apps like Apple is doing with iLife (finally). I'm hoping these app stores push that.
Last edited:
I owned two iPods, and both were broken long ago (circa 2008). Was never compel to own a Zune.
Well. Academia for one. When I send somebody a Word, PowerPoint or Excel file.... it must be as perfect as it can on their system. Even a small deviation is not acceptable, to me at least.
Even though you can export files in a format that MS Office can read, the export is usually not perfect, and its that small difference that bites you in the ass every time.
If this is what it takes to get OneNote for OSX, then I'm all for it.
I, for one, am glad that Microsoft isn't ignoring the iOS and Mac platforms. The fact that Office 2011 documents are 100% compatible with our corporate Office 2010 documents means I can have a Windows-free home.
FWIW, the 1.0.1 update to OneNote for the iPhone fixed that. That sort of thing has happened to some pretty high-profile Mac/iOS developers, too, especially with their early releases.
I, for one, am glad that Microsoft isn't ignoring the iOS and Mac platforms. The fact that Office 2011 documents are 100% compatible with our corporate Office 2010 documents means I can have a Windows-free home.
If you are a halfway serious user of Office, no it doesn't. Not in the least. I know there are a lot of MS haters around here, but nothing compares with Office, and I own all of it, iWork, Office 2010, Office 2011 and (shudder) Open Office. MS Office is far and away the best of them.
All Things Digital reports that Microsoft is "looking at" the possibility of offering its Office productivity suite through the Mac App Store, a move which could be a tremendous boost the new marketplace for Mac OS X applications modeled on Apple's successful iOS App Store.It is unclear how Microsoft would deal with Apple's restrictions on Mac App Store content and Apple's standard 30% cut of revenue from applications sold through the store if it did in fact to offer Office through the marketplace, but such a move would obviously be a significant vote of confidence in the Mac App Store given Office's widespread popularity.
Soon after the iPad's introduction early last year, Microsoft offered similar sentiments about bringing Office to Apple's tablet device, but the company had decided by the time the iPad actually launched in early April that it had "no current plans" to make the move.
Microsoft has, however, taken its first steps onto the iOS platform with last week's release of OneNote, and the company noted in today's interview that it is committed to bringing Office to more platforms.
Article Link: Microsoft 'Looking At' Bringing Office to Apple's Mac App Store
Apple don't do it.
30 seconds after....
Unless they offer entire office suites at a discount and/or allow the purchase of individual programs at reasonable prices this is really not that important.
You can already download office suites online so there really is no need to buy the physical disc anymore. I think it's all a matter of price and convenience. I do like the Mac App Store Updates because most programs don't tell you when there's an update available.
Ultimately, however, I don't think the Mac App Store will ever be as grandiose as Apple envisioned because the MAC community simply isn't that large, whereas the iOS community is. I'm sure Apple will always have the App Store for Mac, at the very least to offer their branded software; But I just don't think this will ever take off like the App Store for iOS (Maybe in 10-20 years it will)
We'll See. Time will tell.
You can already download office suites online so there really is no need to buy the physical disc anymore. I think it's all a matter of price and convenience. I do like the Mac App Store Updates because most programs don't tell you when there's an update available.
Ultimately, however, I don't think the Mac App Store will ever be as grandiose as Apple envisioned because the MAC community simply isn't that large, whereas the iOS community is. I'm sure Apple will always have the App Store for Mac, at the very least to offer their branded software; But I just don't think this will ever take off like the App Store for iOS (Maybe in 10-20 years it will)
We'll See. Time will tell.
What matters is to what degree an app store office would cannibalize Microsoft's existing sales. I would think to a rather large degree and I don't think they'll get too many new customers either.
If I wanted Office I'd download it from the Microsoft Store.
If I wanted Office I'd download it from the Microsoft Store.
Anyone's who's ever gotten out of their parent's basement has got to have realized that the world uses Microsoft Office. Like it or not.
iWork is fine. But as soon as you try opening a keynote file (on which you've spent 5 hours) on a Windows PC running Microsoft Office you'll see why. Yes the text matches up, and most of the formatting does as well. But it's just not the same perfect formatting, slide effects.....and this is just keynote.
Don't even get me started on pages and numbers............
As a Mac user, I would prefer to use Apple software because it is generally awesome. But to be fair....MS Office is still the software to be beat and will continue to hold its place in the world for a very long time.
iWork is fine. But as soon as you try opening a keynote file (on which you've spent 5 hours) on a Windows PC running Microsoft Office you'll see why. Yes the text matches up, and most of the formatting does as well. But it's just not the same perfect formatting, slide effects.....and this is just keynote.
Don't even get me started on pages and numbers............
As a Mac user, I would prefer to use Apple software because it is generally awesome. But to be fair....MS Office is still the software to be beat and will continue to hold its place in the world for a very long time.
True, and there are key parts of Mac OS X that are completed yet - QtKit is in a state of incompleteness hence the reason why even 64bit Cocoa applications are using a bridge to the 32bit Carbon QuickTime Framework. Rumour has it that QtKit will be feature complete in Lion but until then people have no choice but to use what Apple provides.
If people want Office it seems like they'll get it whether or not it's on the App Store. Then again, I thought the same the about the stupid Beatles music being out of the iTunes store.
It's a good thing Apple writes ROCK SOLID software that you can rely on. They definitely did not have a bug in iPhoto 2011 which could cause data loss, nor did they have a software bug in OS X 10.6 that could cause data loss with an upgraded guest account.
I just can't wait for the day that Microsoft writes 100% perfect software, just like Apple! I don't even know why Apple has a software update feature, I mean, all of the software is just so solid that updates aren't needed, right?
Let me make this clear. Microsoft Office is not the industry standard because it's the best (actually, imo iWork does just as good a job if not better in some cases), it's the standard because the world uses Windows and it's really the only major Office Suite FOR Windows. If I was creating documents that I would be printing out or just using myself then i'd use an iWork app for it. If I had to commute files then I may have considered using MS Office for that as a last resort.
Also, as a side note, Office 2008 was horrendous. It was not very intuitive, had absolutely no resemblance to Office on Windows (meaning switchers would be instantly put off. very clever Microsoft) and iWork was the clear winner for me. However, Office for Mac 2011 has proven to be a whole new kettle of fish. Very nice indeed by comparison. That being said, Apple haven't released a new version of iWork yet so we'll have to see.
A little more on topic, bringing MS Office to the app store would be a great move for Microsoft. Otherwise they may see themselves losing sales to Apple's iWork. Plus it's too expensive, and frankly not worth it for me to purchase the entire Office for Mac suite. I'd only need Word. Seeing it land on the App Store would actually make me purchase it.
Also, as a side note, Office 2008 was horrendous. It was not very intuitive, had absolutely no resemblance to Office on Windows (meaning switchers would be instantly put off. very clever Microsoft) and iWork was the clear winner for me. However, Office for Mac 2011 has proven to be a whole new kettle of fish. Very nice indeed by comparison. That being said, Apple haven't released a new version of iWork yet so we'll have to see.
A little more on topic, bringing MS Office to the app store would be a great move for Microsoft. Otherwise they may see themselves losing sales to Apple's iWork. Plus it's too expensive, and frankly not worth it for me to purchase the entire Office for Mac suite. I'd only need Word. Seeing it land on the App Store would actually make me purchase it.
OOOHH, you must be a serious author bending Word to create your masterpiece of fictitious fanboy propaganda. Or you must be using the limits of Excel to create fantastical data and graphs of MSFT falling like a rock. Or you may just be a PowerPointer boring everyone to death. Rubbish, I say!
OpenOffice is more than adequate for 99.999999% of all users. Google docs is getting there.